ANBU! What else?
by Radioactive-man
Summary: Naruto is a member of the ANBU forces and is requested by the Hokage to attend the academy, since he neglected to do so before. After graduating, he learns about not only the Akatsuki being on his case, but also some of Kiyuubi's angry acquaintances.
1. Prelude

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto or anything else involving the series or the manga.

**Prelude**

Uzumaki Naruto was a ten year old boy. Right now he stood in front of what appeared to be an entrance to a large grey building. The door was framed by red and orange wood, a sign on top of it stating, that it was indeed the ninja academy of Konohagakure. Naruto himself was never before in a place like this. The person standing next to him was none other than his current squad captain. Or rather his **former **squad captain, Naruto had to remind himself.

For some odd reason the Hokage had requested, that the young ANBU was to attend the shinobi academy. Well, now that he thought about it, the blonde supposed, that the reason wasn't that weird at all.

From experience Naruto knew, that the old man only had his best interests in mind and he usually was right about it. As the ten year old asked his leader why, he was supposed to go to school, the reply was quite easy. Due to Naruto's lack of knowledge of the "basics of the basics" (seeing as he never attended the academy before) lead to the sad fact, that the hyperactive blonde had trouble greatly improving himself like he did in his first two years umong the ANBU forces.

Unlike some people thought, it wasn't nessesary to be a very skilled fighter in order to enter the ANBU. One could become an ANBU if one had one single ability, that happened to be required by the elite of Konoha at the moment. Naruto knew for a fact, that he wasn't the only child on the ANBU. He met a young boy, going by the name of Sai, who was the same age as the blonde himself. Just as Naruto he was selected to wear the symbolic white mask due to his unique ability of battle caligraphy. As for the boy currently standing in front of the ninja academy, he wasn't told why he was admitted to ANBU at first.

Oh, of course he knew by now. It was a pretty ugly way to find out, actually. Roughly three years ago he along with his four squad members had tracked down and were about to capture a missing-nin from Konoha. He wasn't particulary strong or even dangerous. But he was still a lot stronger and far more skilled than Naruto for the simple reason of experience and propper education. During the year that the boy had been with the ANBU he figured that they wanted him because of his potential as a brawler, able to engage the target in direct combat and distract it until the rest of the squad could precisely disable the opponent, without killing him. Thus Naruto had been only sent after relatively not dangerous shinobi so far. Still this one had managed something, that none of the former ones had accomplished. He managed to knock Naruto's mask off.

Upon seeing the whiskered face of his small opponent he screamed out in rage and started to attack mercilesly, all the while screaming out about Naruto being the Kiyuubi and how he killed his family. Naruto had been so confused that he wasn't even able to take advantage of the older man's recklesness. After a minute or even less his teammates interfered and succesfully knocked the man unconscious. However they refused to answer any questions the small boy tried to direct at them. At the time he wasn't very well aquianticed with his squad due to the impersonality produced by the masks and the ANBU in general.

Now Naruto understood that his constant nagging and probably the confusion and desparation in his voice had softened his teammates in their attitude towards him, finally making them understand, that ANBU or not, he was still nothing more than a child. Or gaki, in some of his teammates' opinnion. But most important they didn't view him as the demon anymore.

Nevertheless, right after delivering their mission report to the Hokage, Naruto had stayed behind and demanded some answers from the old man.The sandaime had no other choice but to tell the small blonde the whole story about the Yondaime not being able to defeat the Kiyuubi and sealing him inside an infant that was Naruto. To the old man's utter surprise Naruto wasn't depressed or sad in any way. No, in fact he was practically jumping with joy. In Naruto's eyes it meant nothing else than the fact that the vilaggers didn't hate **him** as per such, but the demon that was sealed within him. He just would have to proove them wrong now and show them that he was Uzumaki Naruto, not more and not less. Still the Sandaime requested of the young ANBU that he kept quiet about it to children his age, explaining that it would make it easier for him in the long run. Naruto fumed a little but agreed. During the following three years Naruto had served under two different captains, one of whom had been none other than copy-cat Kakashi. When the silver haired pervert was about to explain the beauty of Icha Icha Paradise to Naruto right in front of the Hokage he was taken off the team and placed with another, a man whose real name Naruto didn't know even now. He merely told the team to adress him as Yamato taichou. And they did. The man could be _scary_ if he wanted to. Not even the hardened ANBU were about to question him.

And now here he was. In front of the very building, that he wanted to enter since he was just an infant.

"Hey, kid. You're going to be alrigt?"

Naruto looked up at the masked face of his former captain.

"Sure. I've been an ANBU for four years now. Going to school is going to be a piece of cake. I'll return to the squad in no time, you just wait." The blonde grinned in what he hoped was a confident smile. He steeled himself and proudly walked towards the entrance of the academy.

Yamato watched as his former subordinate stalked inside the building, his legs seemingly unwilling to bend themselves at the knees.

"That's some tough talk for someone who is obviously scared shitless, kid." He murmured while placing his masked face in his hand and shiking his head slightly. He let out an exasperated sigh and walked off, reminding himself to catch up with the brat later that day and see how his first day went.

**AN**

Hi everyone. As the title implies this is merely the prelude and thus pretty short. This is going to be my first Naruto fanfic, which I am not yet sure how long it is going to be. Please review on the story itself(although there isn't much of a story there right now) and on my writing style, since I'm pretty sure I repeated myself quite often in this chapter.

Next chapter is going to be before timeskip to the graduating exam, introducing the characters and the beginnings of the respective relationships between them.

As I already said please, please, please, please, Review! Thanks.


	2. The new student

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto, which is good, since owning people is usually a BAD thing, especially, when you**'**re the same sex.

**The new student**

Umino Iruka was not a happy teacher. In fact, none of the teachers at this particular school were happy. Well, this was understandable, since it was a _shinobi _school. And as such one had to deal with not just some regular students, no, most of these kids were already quite skilled in the ninja arts, thus constantly messing with them. For example, in a normal school a teacher wouldn't have to be afraid, that his students blew themselves up, while practicing a fire jutsu or managed to poke someone an eye out, while training with kunai and shuriken. On top of that there were the delinquents the occasional pranksters and just plain lazy bums. While in the Iruka's class, there currently were no pranksters he had plenty of the other to species.

Inuzuka Kiba was a delinquent of his own calber, always speaking up with some incredibly loud and/or rude comment. Nara Shikamaru put a whole new meaning to the term laziness and his best friend Akimichi Chougi, while not entirely lazy was only concerned with the wellbeing of his stomach.

Oh, and of course there were the silent types. Aburame Shino would only speak, when he chose it was entirely neccesary, which basically meant, only when he was asked a direct question, and even then his answers were so vague that one had to wonder whether the boy was really that philosophic or whether he jus made fun of the teacher. Considering his usual outfit, a coat with such a high collar, that it hid all of his lower face, and the sunglasses he wore even at night, it was entirely impossible to tell if perhaps he was cracking a smile or scowling.

To the silent types also belonged a certain raven haired boy, by the name of Uchiha Sasuke. While he wasn't nearly as silent as the Aburame, he still spent most of his time in the academy brooding over his dark past. Oh, sure, Iruka understood, that the boy had it rough and all, but _damn_! The zoung teacher knew plenty of people, who had it just as bad or even worse, and they were more cheerfull than this character.

To add his headache another one, Sasuke had a fanclub. Yes, a fanclub. Which basically consisted of every girl in his class and evry girl his age that happened to lay eyes on him outside of the academy. Honestly, Iruka had no idea, whiy _ten year olds_ found a silend, brooding avenger type of guy so appealing. In fact he had no idea, why children of this age were interested in such things _at all_. If he remembered correctly, during his time at the academy, the girls were more concerned about becoming as strong as their idol and mimicking him at everything they could. Well, and in some cases they played with dolls. Or in the more extreme cases they found extreme satisfaction in beating the crap out of their peers.

While he didn't think that the last two of these attitudes were better than this one, he still thought that it was entirely too early for them to even consider such a thing as love life.

He stared at the assembled class before him. They were seated behind tables, that were stationed in an audience like manner, one row higher than the other. On top of his tble lay a note, telling him, that as of today a new student would be attending his classes. Silently Iruka prayed that this new student would be _normal _for a change. Just as he was about to announce the news to his totally uninterested class (well, he couldn't say totally, since he didn't know about Shino), a knock on the door halted his speech. Shaking his head, he figured that the new student would manage to introduce himself, without Iruka having to say much at all.

The young chuunin walked to the door and slid it open. A short boy, dressed in baggy black pants, that were wrapped up to his anckles by white bandages, as was common umong shinobi, an orange t-shirt and a sleevless black jacket stood before him. He had blonde hair, bright blue eyes and whiskered cheecks. Iruka recognised him instantly, already having heard of him many years ago, right after the Yondaime "defeated" the demon fox. He also already knew him personally, since he occasionally helped the Hokage assigning the missions. Unlike most of the villagers, Iruka was well aware of the fact, that Naruto was in no way the legendary nine-tailed beast, that attacked Konoha ten years ago. However it was completely beyond him, what an ANBU would want at the ninja academy.

"Hello, Uzumaki-san. What brings you here?" He asked mildly confused.

"Well, you see, Iruka-sa… I mean, Iruka-sensei, the Hokage told me, that in order to improve further I had to go to the academy and learn the basic stuff, like everyone else, since the ANBU don't really have the time, nor are they qualified to teach. Well, and here I am." The blonde said, grinning sheepishly and scratching the back of his neck.

Upon hearing the "Iruka-sensei" the young chuunin had a mental breakdown. And here he was hoping for a _normal_ student. Sighing in defeat he smiled weakly but honestly at the boy.

"So it seems." He said. "Then come in and introduce yourself, then just take a seat you like and we'll get started with the lesson.

Naruto nodded, still a little confused about his new sensei's reaction to the news, but relieved, since he didn't see the cold look in his eyes, that almost everyone else had in stock for him.

He proudly walked to the front of the classroom.(Iruka watched in amusement since once again Narutos knees failed to bend). Upon ariving at his destination, he started in a loud voice.

"Hello, everyone! My name is Uzumaki Naruto and I'm going to kick all of your asses!"

There was silence.

Iruka salapped his face with his hand. Well if that wasn't a good way to start with a new class.

Then someone snickered. After a short pause the class was roaring with laughter, Inuzuka Kiba being the loudest of course.

Naruto grinned, flashed Iruka a smile and ran off to the back of the class, where he spotted a free seat, next to Shino.

And thus Naruto's time at the ninja academy began.

As the lesson ended the blonde boy was faced with the prolem, every new student has to face. With whom, was he going to eat his bento. He was well aware that this choice was quite important, since it would determine his social status umong the class for the following two years. He had several options. A) he was going to eat alone, thus labeling himself an outsider, B) he was going to go an already formed group of people and try to befriend them, C) he could try and form such a group, and inally D) he could find someone, who was eating by himself, approach him and eat his dinner together with him/her. Option A was out of question for him, since he had come to appreciate a decent company, thants to his ANBU squad. He briefly considered B but found no group he could feel good among. Option C could only be fullfilled if he had someone to back him up, leaving only D as a possible result.

Naruto took a look around, searching for his future friend. Several people were indeed eating alone. First of all was a raven haired boy, who calmly devoured his bento under a tree. Naruto figured that the boy would do and was just about to make his way to him, when a large group of girls rushed seemingly out of nowhere and surrounded the now scowling youngster.

Naruto sighed and looked for someone else. There was a girl with dark blue hair, sitting by herself at a bench and poking her food with her chopsticks. When the blonde looked at her, she imedeately blushed and turned away.

"Weird." Naruto mouthed and proceeded to look further. Just as he was going to give up and devote himself to being an honorable outsider a boy in a long trench coat with a high collar and sunglasses walked by him and seated himself on the grass, calmly unpacking his lunch.

Naruto shrugged and walked up to him.

"Hey. Mind if I sit here?" He asked.

The boy just shrugged and shifted a little, as if making space for the blonde, even though there was enough. Naruto shrugged as well and flopped himself to the ground next to the strange boy. They ate in silence for a while, until the suglasses wearing boy spoke up.

"This was quite an entrance you made. By the way…My name is Aburame Shino." All of this was said in a monotone, devoid of all emotion. It reminded Naruto of the introductions umong the ANBU. If he was right then, this Shino was alright, like most of the ANBU were, one just had to be patient with them and earn their trust. Just like them the boy didn't seem to just make friends with anyone, deciding that people who just wanted to hang around and do nothing weren't worth the effort.

"Yeah, I tried." Naruto grinned. "And Aburame as in the Kikkai-bug user clan Aburame?" He inquired having heard some things about the dubious clan and actually met one of the older people on a mission. The jounin's abilities were impressive to say the least.

His only response was a nod and a raised eyebrow, as if the boy expected Naruto to jump and run away screaming. The blonde supposed, that this might have actually happened a couple of times to the bug user, his family ability being one of the creepiest in Konoha.

Naruto shrugged.

"I've seen one of your clansmen in action, and I have to say, he totally kicked ass." He stated matter of factly. As he looked at the silent boy beside him he could have sworn that he was smiling, even if it was just a little bit. Then it was gone just as quickly, making the ex-ANBU wonder if he was halucinating just now.

"Yes, we tend to do that." Shino said and turned back to his bento.

Naruto stared at the boy for a second, then grinned and turned to his own bento, which was surprisingly homemade. One of his former squad members was a woman, who had taken a liking to the blonde boy and treated him akin to a younger brother or a son. Well, in her free time anyway. If they were on a mission they were all equals and there was no place for any emotions aside of comradeship.

Out of the corner of his eye Naruto could see some of Shino's bugs crawl from his sleeves and also eating a part of the silent boy's lunch. The blonde already wondered why Shino had so much food with him, well here was his answer. Shrugging again Naruto returned to his own food and started to devour it.

As time went by Naruto had come to like shino. He was silent, but when he said something it was right to the point. Besides, the blonde rather liked the bug user's slightly sarcastic sense of humour. Of course one had to catch it but after some time Naruto found himself snickering at every lesson, as Shino would murmur silent comments behind his collar, either making fun of some of their classmates or just commenting on Iruka's teachings.(The Chuunin was rather repetitive, often making different people answer the same question, or just plain droning on and on during their history lessons).

After some time however, Naruto found himself longing for a conversation longer than a couple of words. Sure, Shino was a great company, but he was just too silent, and while Naruto wasn't nearly as loud as he was before he entered ANBU, he still was a rather conversative personality. Thus he decided that a third wheel was needed.

On another day, as Shino and him were once again sitting on the grass outside of the academy, Naruto scouted the area for someone the two of them could befriend. Once again his gaye lingered on the lonely figure of the girl he had seen before. Just like the last time she was sitting on her bench and nervously poking her food. Once she saw the blonde looking in her direction, she blushed and turned her gaze down, as if to inspect her bento.

Naruto sighed. The girl was weird, but right now there was noone else he could think of. He just hoped she was a better converstionalist then Shino. Speaking of whom.

The small boy elbowed his taller friend and as the sunglasses turned in his direction he nodded in the direction of the girl he spotted. A shrug was his reply and Shino stood up.

Also raising himself from the ground, Naruto stood and started in to walk to the bench the weird girl currently occupied, the bug user following him silently. Soon they were at their destination. As Naruto suspected, Shino left the talking to him. Well duh.

"Err, hey. Hinata-san, right?" He asked, remembering Iruka calling her that once.

" Um…Yes…Naruto-kun…" The girl all but stuttered. Her voice was so low, that the blonde was forced to hang on to her every word. So much for his hope for a lively conversation. Well, no way back now.

"Well, I was wondering, if you would mind eating with us. You always sit here alone, so I thought, you might appreciate the company." Naruto said, hoping that this would get something more out of the girl and rubbing the back of his neck while grinning. The girl blushed a deep scarlet.

"Um…I-it's okay, Naruto-kun…Y-you don't have to…" She stuttered, desparetely trying not to look the blonde in the eye. Naruto looked at Shino for support.

Shino shrugged.

"No, Hinata-san, really we would like to spend some time with you. You know, there is only so much two people can talk about on their own." He tried again, silently cursing Shino, who seemed to enjoy seeing Naruto suffer.

Behind his collar, Shino grinned.

"Um…T-thank you. I-I…I would like to talk a little…" In his mind a chorus of Narutos sang "Halleluyah!".

"Well it's settled then!" Naruto grinned and flopped himself beside Hinata on the bench. After a short pause Shino followed.

AN 

Hello again. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I just couldn't stop writing, so I made kept on and on, until what you see before you was created. It's also pretty short, but at least it's longer than the first one.

The next chapter is going to be after time skip, featuring the genin exams.

Once again, please review.


	3. The Genin Exam

**The genin exams**

Time seemed to fly by for Naruto and his new friends. They would go to the academy together, sit together behind the same desk (Naruto managed to bug Hinata into sitting with them) and go to practice fields afterwards, where they worked out the knicks in their techniques together. Then they would go to Naruto's place and relax for an hour or two, doing nothing in particular, before Hinata would excuse herself and go home, due to the rather harsh politics of the Hyuugas.

Which was the situation, right now. Well, actually Naruto was getting his butt whipped by Shino at a fighting console game, that they bought recently.

"Argh!" Naruto screamed as his character made a not so soft landing after being launched through the air by a powerful kick. The screen friendly displayed the letters "K.O." and "Perfect Victory".

Sure, Naruto was not rich, nor was he really welcome at the most shops in the village, but the most vendors gladly agreed to sell him anything if he donned his good old ANBU mask. Actually, the identity of an ANBU saved him from numerous unpleasant things that would have happened otherwise. For example, his appartment hasn't been thrashed for more than five years, after people saw him enter and exit his home with his mask donned. _Noone_ messed with the ANBU.

"Damn it, Shino! You can't even imagine to which deepths my loathing for you reaches!" Naruto exclaimed, as he flopped back onto his couch.

The aforementioned bug user raised an eyebrow.

"Naruto…Your gaming skills…suck." There was a pause and everything was deadly silent. Even birds outside seemed to have stopped singing. Shino was like that, when he spoke.

Then the blonde pouted and turned to Hinata, who was sitting on a cushion just below the couch and sipping on her tea.

"Hinata! Shino is being mean!" He exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger towards his friend. Hinata took a look at Shino. Shino shrugged. The girl let out an exaspereted sigh.

"I'm sure he didn't mean it in a bad way, Naruto-kun." She said. After being friends with her not so secret crush for two years she was finally able to speak most of her sentences without stuttering. At least until Naruto went and said something like "Thanks Hinata, you're tha best!" after she did something nice for him. Then her stuttering would return with a vengeance, along with a blush so deep, that Naruto would imedeately jump to the conclusion, of her being sick.

Shino grumbled something, that sounded suspiciously like "Yes, I did."

Before Naruto could rise to the jab, Hinata promptly changed the subject.

"So…Are you two ready for the exams tomorrow?" She tentatively asked. Her friends seemed to calm down a little. The silent Aburame just nodded, while Naruto adapted, what Hinata recognised as his thinking pose, a hand cupping his chin and his eyes almost closed in concentration.

"Well, I still suck with this Bunshin jutsu, but I'm sure they won't test us on that, so I'm pretty confident." He stated exiting his pose and once again relaxing against the couch.

"Naruto…Your Bunshin skill…sucks."

"SHINO!!!! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!!"

Hinata sighed again. She hoped Naruto was right. Despite the blonde being proficient with almost every other technique they were tought, along with some other jutsus, he was taught by his friends from ANBU, the best thing he ever managed while trying to produce a bunshin was a half dead looking clone, several shades paler than himself. The shy girl silently prayed to heaven, that Naruto was right, while in the background the blonde had Shino in a headlock, not noticing some bugs crawling up his spine.

* * *

"This year's exam will be producing a battle ready bunshin."

"WHAAAAAT!!!!!?????????"

Iruka sighed and looked at the blonde genin hopefull, sitting in the back of the class, together with his two friends. Shino looked as impassive as ever, although as the chuunin noticed, his eyebrows were slightly lower than usual.

Hinata looked just as shocked as Naruto, her eyes wide and a hand clapped over her mouth.

As for the blonde in question, he looked just plain furious.

"Iruka-sensei, please, let me do something else, just not the bunshin no jutsu!" He begged.

"Naruto, don't tell me, you _still_ haven't mastered the technique!" The cuunin said unbelievably. It was totally beyond him, how someone, who could learn far superior jutsus had trouble with an easy move like this.

"You know exactly, that I couldn't produce a passable clone, if my life depended on it! How am I supposed to pass this stupid exam!?" The blonde yelled. Uchiha Sasuke just smirked and breathed out a silent "Dobe".

"What did you say, you bastard!? Come here and I'll totally kick your ass!!!" Naruto bellowed across the classroom, Sasuke sitting almost at the other end of it had to wonder how good the dobe's hearing sese actually was.

"Hmph." Was the stoic Uchiha's response

"Enough!" Iruka interrupted. "Naruto, I can't change the exam just for you. You should have worked harder on it. Then you wouldn't be in this situation."

"But sensei!"

"No." Iruka stated with finality. "For now, I want all of you to come to the front of the class and perform the henge no jutsu, as I call for you in alphabetical order. The exams will take place shortly afterwards."

There was a murmur in the class as the students shuffled from their seats in the direction of the chalk board.

* * *

Mizuki was sitting behind a table, together with Iruka. However unlike the dutifull chuunin, the white haired man had completely different interests. Right now he was searching for someone, who would fit into his plan. So far every student passed without a hitch and they were already at the near end of the alphabetically ordered list. Mizuki surpressed a sigh of frustration. If this went on like this he would be stuck in Konoha for another year, or have to try and steal the scroll himself. Who would have thought that this year's exam would be so easy? 

Just as he was about to bang his head against the desk, Iruka called for the next student. Now that piqued Miyuki's interest. Uzumaki Naruto, huh? If the Kyuubi brat would fail, it would be like Christmas and his birthday alltogether. The triator-to-be watched silently as the boy made his way to the center of the room.

"Now, Naruto, please perform the bunshin no jutsu." Iruka asked. Mizuki didn't miss the look of disgust as the blonde concentrated. Chakra started swirling around the boy, which was already a bad sign. The technicke didn't require nearly as much energy for it to work, as Naruto was feeding it. Mizuki remembered that bunshin no jutsu had beed especially designed for ninjas with low chakra capacity. The more experienced and powerful shinobi usually didn't even bother with it, but nevertheless it was an effective technique against an inexperienced enemy.

The chakra around the boy densened and exploded with a soft "poof", producing a small cloud of smoke around the blonde. So far so good, although most shinobi could do it with neither the sound nor the smoke, if they were preparing to ambush someone. As the smoke cleared there were two figures. One of them stood normally, although a little hunched over, facing the second one. The second one… Well, to say the least it was pathetic. The clone was sprawled on the floor, a totally dilirious look on it's face. It was also a couple of shades paler than the original. Miyuki had a hard time keeping a straight face.

"Naruto, I'm sorry, but you fail." Iruka stated, shaking his head slightly. An addition to the plan was already forming itself in the white haired man's brain.

"Now, now, Iruka. We can let him pass, after all he _did_ perform the jutsu, even if the results were not very…impressive." Mizuki started, knowing exactly that the other chuunin would never let the boy pass. He was way too loyal to the rules and laws the Hokage and the council had placed on him. The fool. The traitor-to-be also didn't miss the hopeful look on the brat's face.

However to his utter surprise and disbelief Iruka actually contemplanted on passing the Kyuubi.

"Well, he _is_ able to do everything except bunshin… But then again…Hmm." Mizuki's mind was racing. Did he push it too far? Would Iruka actually let the brat pass? That would destroy all of his plans, damn it! But if he tried to disencourage the chuunin, then it would probably alert him and let him know, something was up. No other choice. The best way of action was to just sit there and say nothing, hoping against hope that Iruka would make up his mind.

"No." The scarred chuunin finally said. "Naruto, a ninja must be prepared for anything at any time. I'm sure, another year at the academy will not hurt you."

The blonde in question sighed and stalked out of the room. Mizuki almost released a sigh of relief along with a happy cry. This was just the best way things could have worked out. Now he only had to finish this stupid exam and then his plan could be put into motion.

* * *

To say Naruto was in a bad mood would be an understatement. To say he was pissed would also not quite describe the situation. Hell, even Sasuke with his constant brooding looked like the incarnation of cheerfulness compared to Naruto right now. The ex-ANBU stalked out of the building and went to the tree in front of the academy. He contemplanted to sit on the swing and look dejected, but then decided against it and proceeded to try and demolish the said tree in any way he thought possible. After half an hour the "tree" looked like it had been through hell and back again, without any leaves, a broken trunk and smoking from several places.

This was how Mizuki found Naruto. The boy was standing there and glaring at his work deep in thought, as if contemplanting what other tortures he could put the poor thing through. Mizuki now and then thought, that perhaps it would be better to leave the brat alone, but after reminding himself of the life he would be able to lead after he left Konha with the scroll, he steeled himself and carefully approached the boy with what he considered to be a disarming smile.

"Hey, Naruto." He said as he was close enough.

The blonde broke out of his dreams and took a glance at the man who spoke to him.

"There is no need to be angry. You know, Iruka is not being mean to you or anything." Mizuki continued after he was certain, that he got the youth's attention.

"I know that. It's just… Argh! Why did it have to be bunshin no jutsu!?" Naruto exclaimed flnging his arms around. Seeing that the boy was about to continue his tirade, Mizuki interrupted.

"Well, if you want to pass the exam so badly, there might be another way…" He trailed off, looking if the Kyuubi brat had taken the bait. The boy looked straight at him, his face a mix of emotions. On one hand he looked just happy, that he might actually get a second chance, on the other one he seemed suspicious, after all he barely knew the chuunin and he had never heard anything about a second way of passing the exams.

Mizuki decided to continue anyway.

"Come with me, I'll expalin everything when we are alone." He said turning around and walking off, sure that the brat would follow.

And follow he did. However by now his face was void of all emotion, just his eyes betraying that he was on guard for some reason. The chuunin walking ahead of him noticed none of this, since he had his back turned to the boy.

* * *

In Mizuki's opinion this was surprisingly easy. He had told the brat, that if he stole the scroll of Forbidden Jutsus and learned one skill from it, he would pass the exam anyway. The blonde just nodded and took off, the chuunin having told him, that he would find him afterwards. Mizuki grinned.

So far everything went as he had planned.

* * *

What Mizuki didn't know, was the fact, that after entering the Hokage's tower, Naruto didn't go to the chamber where the scroll was held. Instead he ventured right to the Hokage's ofiice and asked for an audience.

After a short fifteen minutes wait he was ushered inside the spacy room. The Hokage was sitting in his chair, a pipe in his hand and his eyes closed, while his face was facing slightly upwards. He let out a stream of white smoke, opened his eyes and fixed his gaze on the blonde boy in front of him.

"Hello, Naruto. What brings you here?" He asked. He was well aware about the genin exams and about Naruto failing them. Personally he was ready to promote the boy anyway, since he knew that the academy wouldn't help the boy anymore than it already did. In order to improve, which the boy longed for with all his heart, he needed the advise and guidance of someone more qualified. He intended to give Naroto the choice of becoming a genin and going back to ANBU, both of the possibilities would ensure the steady development of the boy.

"Erm. I'm not sure how I should word it, old man." The Hokage's eye twitched. Why did he have to remind him of his age? God knows his bones did that enough already.

"Just tell whatever is on your heart and I'll see what I can do about it." Sarutobi said, after heaving a calming sigh.

"Okay. I think Mizuki-sensei is up to something. And it's nothing good." The blonde said, his face uncharacteristically serious. The Hokage supposed, that this was how Naruto's face had to look like under the ANBU mask, during the report about his mission.

"And what makes you think that?" The Sandaime inquired. This was a serious accusation, after all.

Naruto told the old man about the happenings of the day and his short talk with the chuunin.

"I didn't know what to think about it all at first, but after he said that he wanted to talk about it in private, I figured that something was wrong. After all, why would he want to hide something from everyone else, while he tells it to me, of all people?" The blonde finished.

The Sandaime was silent for a while. It hurt him to konow, that someone of his village's shinobi would do something to harm Konoha, as it seemed Mizuki was about to do. He let out a tired sigh. In the back of his mind he noted, that he seemed to do that a lot lately. He gazed at Naruto.

"Say, did you ever think about returning to ANBU, Naruto?" He inquired.

"Er, yes. But you know, I figured, that after the academy my teammates and I are going to be sent on… more difficult missions than capture and, well… Honestly I don't think I'm ready for that kind of stuff. Besides I wanted to see, what life as a genin was like. But if you think I should…" The boy started slightly confused by the sudden change of topic. He was stopped by the waving of the Sandaime's hand.

"It's okay. Then consider this your first mission as a genin." Naruto jumped a little with surprise.

"You are to take the scroll and go out of the village. There you are to wait until Mizuki approaches you. You will wait until he makes his move. If indeed he has been misinformed in some way about the way the academy is run, you will do nothing. If he is indeed up to something, which I strongly suspect, you are to throw an exploding tag somewhere as a sign. A chuunin team is going to be nearby and waiting." The Hokage finished.

Naruto was confused.

"What do you mean, my first mission as a genin?" He asked.

"I hereby promote you to genin, Naruto. However, you will receive your hitayate after the mission, since it requires you to pretend as if nothing happened." Sarutobi said and smiled as he watched a huge smile creep onto the blonde's face.

"Thanks, old man! I promise, I won't disappoint you!" He screamed as he ran out of the door and down to the chamber with the scrolls.

The Sandaime just shook his head. Even if some of the shinobi were not loyal to their home, Konoha still had a future as long as people like Naruto existed.

* * *

The woods around Konoha were thick, but well lit. At least they were that at day. At night however they looked dark and foreboding.

Naruto sat in a clearing near a small hut, that was deserted for quite some time, as it seemed. He was bored and combined with the dark atmosphere around him, he fugured that he needed something to distract himself. The huge scroll that was sitting by his feet looked very inviting.

The blonde shook his head. The Sandaime trusted him with the scroll, so he couldn't just take advantage of his trust like that.

But then again, perhaps the old man _wanted_ Naruto to take a peek inside. Knowing the slightly manipulative nature of the third Hokage, it was a very likely option.

And finally, what would he do, if Mizuki showed up and Naruto didn't learn a new skill from the scroll?

Nodding to himself, the ex-ANBU picked up the scroll and opened it. As he proceeded to unroll it his eyes caught a familiar jutsu name. Was that bunshin no jutsu?

No. The text said Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.

Naruto growled. If the skill was anything like the simple bunshin jutsu, he could forget about learning it. But then again, the bunshins were usually useful, and despite what people might think of him, the blonde _did_ want to learn the damn move. He just couldn't, for some unknown reason.

His eyes wandered over the text. Indeed this skill held only a very vague similarity with the technique they were taught at the academy.

He decided to give it a try.

An hour later he read through all the information on the scroll and was delighted to see, that the move only required one hand seal, thus making it easy and most important quick to perform.

Standing up Naruto braced himself, concentrated and did the handseal, pushing the usual amount of chakra into it. There was an almost inaudible "poof" and as Naruto looked to his right he found himself gazing into the blue eyes of a clone.

"Yo!" The clone said.

"Cool…" The real Naruto breathed out.

"Yeah, I know. After all I'm you and as we both know, you're the coolest thing this village has ever seen." The clone boasted. Naruto grinned. If nothing else these clones were good to boost one's spirit.

"That's damn right! And that makes you the best clone this village has ever seen!" The two of them enjoyed some moments of arrogance before the clone said that it was running out of chakra and poofed out of existance about five seconds after that.

Naruto decided to experiment some more. This time he poured about five times as much chakra into the handseal and was rewarded with five silent "poofs" instead of one. Six Narutos faced off.

"Now there're six of us. This oficially makes this exact spot the coolest place on earth." One of the clones said, grinning like a madman. Naruto could only nod in approval. After staying there for a minute and doing nothing one of the clones proposed to spar.

"Good idea. Could've been mine." Another clone said.

"I _am_ you, baka." The first one retorted.

"Who are you calling a baka? If you call one of us baka, than you call all of us baka, including yourself, remember?" Yet another clone piped up.

"This is getting kinda confusing." The real Naruto mumbled, watching the faceoff of the clones. Slowly but surely they let their temper get the upper hand and proceeded to pummel eachother.

The original watched as all clones except for one poofed out of existance.

"Ha, I'm the best!" The clone punched the air with his fist. Then his face contorted, as if he had a massive stomach ache. "Aww, damn. Out of chakra already." He moaned and followed his brethren to where they had come from.

Naruto just shook his head.

"Am I really that easy to provoke?" He mumbled to himself.

The blonde just shrugged and made his way to the scroll, still lying on the earth. Just as he was about to open it again and see if there were any other skills he might be able to learn, a slight creaking of a branch alarmed him, that he wasn't alone anymore.

* * *

Mizuki just arrived at the scene. He jumped onto the branch of a tree, that stood on the edge of the clearing he had heard the noise coming from. Just as he suspected, there was the Kyuubi brat, casually walking towards a large scroll. The white haired man had been confused, that there were no shinobi looking for the scroll yet, but he figured that they probably didn't discover it's absence yet. He casually jumped down from his perch. The blonde turned to face him, the scroll already in his hands.

"Naruto." The chuunin greeted, coming closer. His hand slowly reached down to his kunai pouch behind his back.

"Mizuki-sensei!" The blonde exclaimed. "I have been able to learn just one technique from the scroll, but that's enough, right?" He asked, grinning like an idiot.

The man was taken aback by that. The brat actually managed to master a skill from the scroll? That could comlicate the matters. Better just tell him he passed and ask him to hand over the scroll.

"Yes, that is quite enough. Now give me the scroll and I'll take care of the rest." Mizuki offered. To his surprise, the blonde didn't change his grinning expression.

"Why, don't you want to see it? After all I could be _liying _to you." The chuunin didn't miss the imphasis on the word _liying_. His eyes narrowed.

"No, I'm sure you wouldn't lie to your sensei." He said in a more serious tone.

"Then I'm sure you have my hitayate behind your back, or you wouldn't be reaching there with your hand, _sensei_." The blonde said, still grinning. Mizuki noted that just like him, the brat was reaching behind his back. So he figured it out, didn't he? But this didn't matter. He would just have to kill him quickly and be off with the scroll.

Mizuki stopped acting and scowled.

"Time to die, brat." He anounced and flung a kunai he was able to retract from the pouch, aiming for the blonde's neck.

* * *

Naruto knew it the moment Mizuki asked him to hand over the scroll. What he couldn't belive was the fact that he wasn't able to find an exploding tag in his pouch. As the conversation ended and a kunai was flung his way, he dodged and tossed a couple of kunai of his own. While Mizuki dodged one and blocked another, Naruto hastily reached in his kunai holster in hopes to find what he desired there. No such luck. He couldn't _belive_ he forgot an exploding note after the Hokage personally told him to bring one. What was he supposed to do now? He could try and fight the traitor or he could run and try to find the group of chuunin that were supposed to be somewhere nearby. But then again, for all he knew, they could be in an entirely other direction, from the one he might take. It was a gamble with little chances of winning.

He decided to fight. After all, Uzumaki Naruto wasn't one to back down a challenge. He formed a handseal and with a small poof three clones appeared. One of them ran straight at Mizuki, while a second one tailed him, hiding from the traitor's view behind the back of the first one. The real Naruto and the remaining clone jumped up and into the trees, where they separated and tried to get behind Mizuki's back.

The man in question had flung a huge shuriken at the clone rushing at him, successfully dispelling it. He was however caught off guard by an uppercut of the second clone, which suddenly emerged from the smoke, created by the dispersal of the first one. The man was flung back and onto his ass. He emediately jumped back up, but was unable to use any weapons as he was forced into a pure taijutsu fight against the clone that uppercuted him. To his surprise he wasn't able to land a single hit on the blonde, while he in exchange used every opening imaginable and hit precisely and hard.

Mizuki had to do something and do it quick. He jumped high into the air and formed a few handseals. As he came back down he tried to slam a palm into the clone, but the anoying blonde dodged again. Only this time a small lace of electicity sparked from the chuunins hand and connected with a whiskered cheek.

The clone cried out in surprise and exploded into a cloud of smoke. Just as Mizuki thought he had gained the upper hand again ha was tackled to the gound by a yet another Naruto. Angrily the man swiped at the annoying pest with his still slightly charged hand, and once again was rewarded with a cloud of smoke. Mizuki tried to get up, when suddenly he found himself unable to. Looking at himself he found out that in the short time the clone tackled him, it managed to bind up his legs with a thin but very durable wire. The chuunin growled and cut through the bonds with a kunai, he hastily retrived from his pouch. The fight was going bad, very bad for him. So far he had taken several painful hits, and if he was not mistaken, some of his ribs were cracked. In the meantime the traitor wasn't able to land a single blow on the blonde ninja.

He silently cursed and stood up, holding in a sharp intake of air, as he grazed his injured ribs. He looked around for the original Naruto.

In the meantime the said original was busy setting up traps all around the clearing, in case the traitor tried to flee. Given, they were very basic, due to lack of good material and time, but to make up for that they were as good as invisible in the dark forest. As Naruto finished the last trap, he heard the third "poof" from the clearing signaling that the last clone was gone. Steeling himself, Naruto decided that it was time to face his oponent.

The blonde made his way back to the clearing, where he spotted Mizuki looking around suspiciously. The moron hadn't even noticed that in his haste Naruto left the scroll lying on the ground, having dropped it to perform the required handseal.

The genin jumped out of his hiding and watched as Mizuki hastily spun in his direction.

"Not bad, brat, but it'll take more than that to take me down. Oh, and by the way, how were you going to explain the stolen scroll to the Hokage?" The traitor asked, once again reaching behind his back. Naruto noticed that this time he pulled out a kunai with an exploding tag atached to it. He grinned.

"Oh, don't worry about that." He announced. "I didn't steal the scroll, like you said me to. Instead, I told everything the Hokage, and right now a team of chuunin are waiting for my signal to capture you. I just thought that I might play with you a little." Naruto said and grinned a cocky smile.

"Why you…" Mizuki growled and threw the kunai. Naruto expertly dodged and watched in satisfaction as the exploding tag went off a safe distance from him.

"Oh, and by the way, Mizuki-_sensei_. The signal was supposed to be an exploding tag, which I forgot. But you took care of it just fine." Naruto had a hard time containing his laughter as Mizuki's face contorted from anger towards confusion and finally toward fear, paling considerably.

"Damn you." He hissed and jumped into the trees. Right where Naruto had planted one of the more painful traps.

There was some rustle, then the sound of heavy impact and a strangled cry. Mizuki flew back into the clearing, his face all red from the blood, pouring from a broken nose. It was to be expected, when a face met a speeding heavy log of wood.

Understandably, Mizuki was unconscious.

Naruto winced at the sight and proceeded to souroughly tie up the man. After he was finished he heard multiple soft taps behind him, as the chuunin team arrived.

* * *

"Well, what do you know…" A familiar voice spoke up. Naruto turned around and was faced with Iruka, obviously leading the team. The man grinned.

"I guess I owe you a hitayate, eh, Naruto?" The scared man asked jokingly as he surveyed the scene.

"Yeah. You sure do, sensei." The blonde grinned as well.

"Close your eyes." The older man advised.

"If you do anything perverted, I swear, I'll kill you in a most painful and gruesome way, sensei." The genin said, but complied nonetheless. His friends from ANBU had filled him in on the ways some people were perverted like that, when they visited a bar and took the underage Naruto along, just to show him, what "real life" was like. Of course they were mostly drunk as they told their story about perverted men, that miss a wheel or two in the head.

Iruka sweatdropped but continued on his way of action and tied his hitayate around the blonde's forehead.

"There you go. I congatulate you on graduating, Uzumaki-san." The chuunin anounced. Naruto opened his eyes and saw Iruka pull out a new hitayate from his pocket and tie it around his head.

"Not to offend you, sensei, but why did you give me yours, when you had a new one in your pocket?" He inqured.

"Oh, you know, my old one was getting all sweaty and worn out…" Iruka started.

"Sensei…." Naruto started in a low, warning voice.

"Just joking!" Iruka laughed. "No actually I wanted you to have something to remember your old teacher by. I'm sure you're going to be a great shinobi someday, and when that day comes, I want you to look at your hitayate, remember me and come visit me and tell me of some of the adventures you've been through. Then we can exchange our hitayates again. Is that a deal?" The scared chuunin asked, as his teammates proceeded to haul up the still unconscious Mizuki and bring him back to the village, where a pleasant conversation with Morino Ibiki no doubt already waited for him.

"Deal." Naruto grinned and extended his hand. Iruka grinned as well and shook the blonde's hand.

They told their goodbeyes and Iruka started walking off, with the Scroll of Forbidden Jutsus in his hands.

"Oh, and by the way. Don't forget that tomorrow you're going to be assigned a team. You'll have to be in our class at 8 o'clock. And it's already four now." The chuunin stated offhandedly.

"WHAT?!" The cry was heard across the whole village of Konoha.

**AN:**

Hello everyone. This chapter has come out quite a bit longer than the previous ones, so enjoy. And please excuse my gramatical mistakes, since I am not originally english speaking person and my spellcheck isn't working for some reason right now. I tried to correct every mistake I could find, but unfortunately I'm sure you'll find even more. You know how it is, to try and find mistakes in a text, you have written. You know what is _supposed_ to be there so you just don't see what really stands there.sigh

The next chapter is going to be about team assignments and probably something more.

Once again, please review, I'm always happy to hear some suggestions for improvement.


	4. The Teams

No, you aren't dreaming. This is indeed a new chapter. Sorry it took so long, but I just couldn't write it, without plain out copying it from some of the fanfics I've read, like S'TarKan's Team 8(For those who enjoy my fanfic, I highly recommend to read it, if you havn't done so before). So this is the result. I hope you like it.

**The Teams**

First, there was nothing. Just the plain darkness. Then a sound entered and disrupted the absolute silence, that was there before. No matter how hard he tried to ignore it, it wouldn't go away. After about five more minutes the sound stopped. Only to return twice as loud after another minute.

Naruto jumped from the sudden increase of noise coming from his alarm clock. He stared at the old electronic thing with as much hatred as he could muster so early in the morning. The clock appeared nonplussed by the glare and continued to beep. The blonde sighed and pushed the snooze button. His bloodshot eyes finally registered that the damn thing was set to go off at six, as he made it a habit to wake up early, when he was still an ANBU. Great. Overall he had gotten about one and a half hours worth of sleep. Which was at the very least six hours too little in Naruto's opinion. However trying to go to sleep again would only result in him being late for the team assignments, that were due today at eight o'clock.

Heaving a sigh the genin threw off his blankets and proceeded to find a pair of clean pants. After discovering his prey he trudged to the bathroom and did his morning routines. A quick shower later Naruto could be found in his small kitchen, trying to fix himself something for breakfast. In his fridge he discovered some eggs, a bottle of mineral water as well as a whole load of different kinds of frozen foods, that only needed a few minutes on the stove, inside a frying pan. He tok out the eggs and proceeded to look into the different cupboards of the kitchen. One of them was filled with about a dozen instant ramen cups, another one contained his cooking utensils and yet another had some bread in it. Taking the bread out, the blonde also picked out a small frying pan and put it on the stove. In his opinion nothing went better for breakfast than some fried eggs along with something to munch on, like a sandwich or a butter bread. His obsession of ramen was quickly disposed of in his ANBU days, since it didn't give his body everything it needed in order to grow healthy and was reduced to general liking. Besides, even Naruto grew tired of eating it all the time.

Some fifteen minutes later the genin was seated behind the table and slowly ate his breakfast. The clock read a quarter to seven by now.

After finishing his food, Naruto proceeded to dress himself the whole way, pinning his pants to the ankles with the bandages as well as putting on his usual orange t-shirt and black sleeveless jacket.

After putting his sandals on, he decided to get an early start and be on his way to the academy, since he was way too tired to run anyway. On his way out of the apartment he risked one last glance in the mirror. Yup, still him. Only now he had some nicely defined bags under his eyes.

Naruto shrugged. God knows he sometimes looked far worse than this. However something was amiss. The blonde almost slapped himself. He trudged to the night stand near his bed and picked up his hitaiate, tying it around his head. Task done he finally left the apartment and after locking the door slowly went in the direction of the academy.

* * *

As expected he arrived way too early. He still had about thirty five minutes left. Well, thirty five more minutes of sleep for him. He warily trudged into the building and navigated his way to his classes' home room. Picking his usual seat in the very back of the class he promptly fell asleep. About fifteen minutes later the other students, or rather genins began to arrive. The blonde noticed none of this until he felt someone take a seat next to him. 

Naruto raised his head and took a look at the guy. Something like an afro, black sunglasses, a coat covering almost all of his face… Shino. Naruto flopped back down and tried to catch some precious minutes of sleep, before their teacher arrived, knowing full well, that his silent friend would most likely leave him be for a while. Another presence seated itself on Naruto's other side. This time he didn't even need to look at the person, to know who it was. The way the person slowly walked to the seat, almost as if afraid that someone would notice her if she walked too fast, the way the seat barely made a sound as the girl sat down, this could be only Hinata.

"Good morning Naruto-kun, Shino-kun." She said, although Naruto could feel her surprised tone at seeing him here. Well, officially he _did_ fail. There was no way someone would know about him passing anyway.

"Morning Hinata." He said, almost falling back to sleep. He felt Shino move slightly, obviously nodding to their friend.

For about a minute no one of the group said anything and Naruto was almost asleep again. But then…

"Ano…Naruto-kun. How come you passed the exam?" Really, had it been anyone else, even Shino…nah, especially Shino, he probably would have bashed this person's head in for depriving him of his well deserved sleep. But this was Hinata. He could never bring himself to be even slightly annoyed at her. The blonde sighed and decided that it was time for him to finally wake up for good.

"Ah, a long story. Yesterday I kinda failed and then this Mizuki guy came and told me to steal something from the Hokage, and that I would pass if I did." Naruto explained. He noticed Shino also listening in. "I thought that it smelt fishy and went straight to the old man. He said that I should take the item, go out of Konoha and wait for Mizuki. And if he tried something weird I was supposed to call for help. But I forgot something I needed to call the help and was forced to beat the crap out of Mizuki myself. And then I was officially promoted and here I am!" He finished with his usual grin.

Shino raised an eyebrow. Hinata had a slightly shocked expression on her face but then just smiled and said "That's nice for you, Naruto-kun." The next five minutes were spent with Naruto trying to answer all the questions his two friends directed at him and then Iruka entered the room.

After gaining the genins' attention he started.

"Alright, everyone. First off I again congratulate you all on passing. As I am sure all of you are aware of, you are going to be assigned to teams of three plus your future sensei." As the chuunin proceeded to start calling out names, Naruto along with his two best friends held their breath. Of course they hoped to be put on the same team, especially since it made sense, seeing as they were used to work together.

"…Team seven are going to be Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke and Inuzuka Kiba." The pink haired girl jumped in her seat and released a high pitched squeal along with a toothy grin to one of her classmates, who was sitting in the same row as Naruto. The blonde kunoichi scowled at her friend/rival/enemy for getting into the team she wanted to be on. The Uchiha scowled and Inuzuka Kiba grinned showing off his sharp teeth.

"Now, team eight." Iruka meanwhile continued. Naruto tensed. So far the chances of the three of them getting on the same team only grew. "That will be Uzimaki Naruto…" The blonde in question could almost feel his muscles cramp up because of the mental strain that in turn made his body strain itself. "Aburame Shino…" Naruto swallowed hard. _Please let the last member be Hinata!_ "…and Hyuuga Hinata."

There was about a second long silence before Naruto jumped into the air.

"YEAH! WE'RE GONNA ROCK 'EM ALL! GIVE ME A FIVE, SHINO!" Again there was silence as the bug user only turned his head to his blonde friend.

"…No." Yet another silence.

"Hah! Then don't! I'll high five with Hinata instead!" Naruto exclaimed and turned to the shy girl. However his outburst had turned the attention of the whole class in their direction. Which basically rendered Naruto's female team-mate immobile and blushing like a tomato.

"Aw, you guys always do that, when I try to high five any of you." The blonde slumped back into his seat, obviously disappointed. Hinata stuttered a silent apology and Shino shrugged.

As the remaining teams were announced, team eight sat in silence, with the occasional outburst from Naruto, who still couldn't finish his description of how "totally awesome" it was for them to be on the same team.

Finally Iruka finished his duty and told them that their jounin advisers should be arriving in about an hour and that they wished to introduce themselves.

Having an hour free team eight decided to stay in the class for a while and discuss the good news. Well, everything Naruto hadn't discussed about with himself anyway.

"So, it's the three of us again, huh? I still can't believe how lucky we are." The blonde genin repeated for what sounded like the fifth time in two minutes.

"If you bothered to think about it, you would have come to the conclusion, that this occurrence has nothing to do with luck whatsoever…Naruto." The silent bug user said in his usual monotone voice.

"How so, Shino-kun?" Hinata inquired, already having a pretty good idea what the Aburame was getting at, but wanting to spare Naruto the embarrassment of asking.

"During our time in the academy we were not only taught the basics of being a proficient shinobi, but were also being observed and graded. I assume, that our…friendship hasn't escaped our tutors' eyes. And seeing as the teams that leave the academy have to be as proficient as possible, it only makes sense that our superiors would build teams with members, who can work as one unit without much training and whose abilities compliment each other." Shino explained. Again there was a pause.

"Wow, Shino. I think that was the longest speech I have ever heard from you." Naruto announced.

If Shino was unnerved by the comment, he hid I well.

"But you're right. I have already thought about it and I kinda agree with you. The only thing I wonder about is who our seinsei is going to be." The blonde said once again adopting his thinking pose. Unlike his two team-mates Naruto knew a lot of higher ranked shinobi and was currently thinking about the possibilities. Of the many different jounins that were allowed to lead and teach a team of genins, and who didn't already have a team, Naruto knew his old perverted squad captain Hatake Kakashi, the psychotic but funny Matarashi Anko, the ever smoking Sarutobi Asuma and finally the scarred Morino Ibiki. Neither of the jounins were really what Naruto wanted to have as a sensei. Of course, Kakashi was one of the best shinobi in Konoha and he had a cool attitude, but his chronic tardiness was way too unnerving. Anko was… well, Anko. The woman was a bloodthirsty beast half of the time and wasn't really communicative, which was vital to establish good teamwork. Asuma was plain lazy and Ibiki was scary. Kakashi was with ninety nine percent out of question, since he would be most likely assigned to lead the team the Uchiha was on, considering his sharingan. The other three were still in question, but Naruto strongly doubted they were willing to accept a team. Well, Asuma maybe, but Anko and Ibiki? _Hell_ no.

Sighing deeply, Naruto prayed that their teacher wouldn't be someone of the aforementioned people. There were more than enough jounins in Konoha, after all.

Seing as they still had plenty of time on their hands the trio decided to get some fresh air and spend the rest of their 'break' outside.

* * *

Yuuhi Kurenai was a strong, respected and beautiful kunoichi. She just recently had risen to the rank of a jounin and was now on her way to pick up her first genin team from the academy. She struggled to keep a straight face and not to smile like an idiot. Not many jounins were chosen by the Hokage to take care of the growing up shinobi and the fact that the Sandaime had personally asked her to take in a team was still making her chest swell up with pride. 

However appearances had to be kept. During her time as a genin and later a chuunin, Kurenai realised that one should carefully choose which people were allowed to see her true emotions and which weren't. Showing emotions in front of strangers, who might in future very well be your enemies would possibly allow them to find a weakness in you. This rule was something she had burdened herself with for years. But this of course didn't mean she didn't feel anything, she just didn't show it. And people who knew her well enough could tell what was on her mind anyway, despite her mask of indifference.

As Kurenai walked down the dusty road, she hadn't walked for a long time, she found herself hoping that her team and herself would sometime be able to show what they felt to each other.

Of course she had been informed by the Hokage about the members of the team and was slightly disturbed to find out that she was supposed to be the sensei of such different personalities, not to mention a demon host. The latter was quite disturbing indeed. She herself was too young to fight the Kyubi directly when he attacked. And unlike the majority of the population of Konoha she didn't loose anyone important to her during that night. Moreover as a genjutsu user she was used to looking 'underneath the underneath', as that pervert Kakashi might have put it, more than the most shinobi, and was thus rather sceptic about the way most people felt about the boy. On the other hand, she dind't know anything about the seal used to imprison the demon. Did it allow the Kyubi to take the boy over, merely restraining him to a human body? Did it establish a constant link between the two? If so, who knew what twisted ideas Kyubi might have planted into the boy's head? So many questions and no answers at all. However, Kurenai believed that once she had a chance to meet the boy at least some of these questions may be answered. After all it was common to consider the accused not guilty, until proven otherwise, wasn't it?

The kunoichi broke out of her musings as she noticed that she was but a few steps away from the entrance. She gazed at a clock that hung above the door. She was punctual, as always. She spied some students passing her and walking back into the building from a break apparently. Her eyes caught sight of bright blonde hair that was heading her way, or rather in the direction of the entrance. Upon closer inspection she found a whiskered face right underneath the unruly mass of hair. So this was the rumoured host of Kyubi. She wasn't surprised to find a pale eyed girl and a sunglasses wearing boy by his side. Of course she was briefed about the friendship between the trio, even if Naruto himself was mentioned only in passing, since back then everyone thought that he had failed the exam. But apparently he was promoted anyway. After Kurenai received a message, telling her that her team would not consist of Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino and Inuzuka Kiba, as was planned before, but instead the dog user would be replaced by Uzumaki Naruto, she immediately dug up everything she could about the incident that occurred yesterday. Really that Mizuki should have at least tried to get more information on his would be victim. If he knew that Naruto was at a time a member of the black ops of Konoha, he would have surely chosen someone else, or even tried to steal the scroll himself. Everything would have been more reasonable than trying to overwhelm or outsmart someone who obviously was quite used to this sort of thing.

Yes, Kurenai had also found out about the past of the boy, which wasn't that hard, since the information wasn't classified that high, allowing even chuunin to take a look inside the file. That in itself wasn't a wonder. After all, everyone knew that at some point in his life Kakashi had been an ANBU as well. In fact it seemed that there were very little secrets surrounding the demon container, which was somewhat unsettling, since one would expect something like this to be kept secret from almost everyone. As Kurenai was reading Naruto's file she had been prepared to find almost everything, ranging from the boy having a criminal past to the point where he would have been a target for assassinations. But, alas, the life of Uzumaki Naruto had very little to do with those suspicions. Indeed, before Naruto was admitted into the mysterious organisation, he was known to pull some minor pranks on people who had been unjust to him in some way, but even that ceased after the young boy was requested to assist the elite of Konoha on a permanent basis.

In the file she was also able to find some notes about Naruto's training, even though they weren't very specific. She found out, that the boy was far above the average level in taijutsu for his age, possessed admirable strength for someone of his size (When she read that, she had to crook an eyebrow, since it was said in those words exactly. That sounded awfully like Kakashi to her.), had an inhuman regeneration speed and could overall take far more damage than even some of the jounin ranked ninjas. A side note was scribbled down, suggesting that this was likely due to the blonde's 'condition' and his 'furry little friend' (Now if that didn't sound like Kakashi…). After a while, the handwriting changed and with it the details about the genin's training grew. She was able to find out all the different styles that the boy was taught as well as a list of the jutsus the boy had mastered during his time in the ANBU. She was disappointed to find that the list was pretty short and the jutsus were very basic. Another side note said that it was necessary to find a qualified tutor, to teach Naruto proper chakra control. About two pages further the file ended, telling that Uzumaki Naruto was taken off the ANBU for two years or more, depending on the personal wishes of the boy.

Just as all of this information passed before her eyes the blonde in question along with his two friends passed her and went inside. Kurenai glanced at the clock once again and also headed for the entrance in a slow pace. As she drew nearer to the classroom where her future students were currently located she wasn't surprised as someone called her name.

Turning around she found Sarutobi Asuma jogging to catch up with her.

"Hello, Kurenai-sensei." He greeted, grinning as a small smile crept up onto her face at the mentioning of her new title.

"Good afternoon, Asuma-sensei." She greeted back. As Asuma caught up with her, she could see other jounins filling in into the academy. She wondered how many of them would still have a team by the end of the week.

"I heard the Hokage asked you personally to take on a team, huh?" He asked, as they started walking again.

"Yes. He believes, that I have what it takes to be a good teacher, or so he says. I personally think that he just wanted to have at least one decently trained team." She answered jokingly. Asuma raised a hand to his chest.

"Oh, your harsh words are shattering my heart. But seriously. I think he's right. It would be a waste if you didn't take a team. If you are going to pass them, that is. By the way, who are your charges?" He asked and promptly continued. "Mine are Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji and Yamanaka Ino. Their parents worked well together and those three seem to at least know each other pretty good. It figures that they would be stuck on the same team."

"Yes, you are probably right. As for my team they are Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino and Uzumaki Naruto." She finished the last part and glanced at the older jounin to see his reaction.

"Ah, I know the boy. A good kid, actually. Wouldn't expect someone like him to be like that. He didn't seem to like me much, though." Asuma chuckled.

"You know him?" Kurenai asked, a little surprised.

"Yeah. You know how my dad feels about him. So when I visit him, the boy would often hang around there as well. My nephew used to pick fights with him a lot, but they seem to get along lately." The ever smoking man said, lighting up another cigarette, right under a 'no smokong' sign.

Kurenai nodded and they proceeded to open the door to the classroom. They were met by a complete silence, which was remarkable, since when the door was closed they could hear a lot of different and even a little confusing noises coming from in there. The genins sat as still as if they hadn't moved at all, since they entered the room and took their seats. A wall of eyes stared at the two jounins, who in turn stared back, still feeling a little uncomfortable. Asuma cleared his throat.

"Team ten? Get down here!" He bellowed. A rather full boy along with a ponytail wearing one and pale blonde girl got up from their seats located at the very back of the class and started walking down. As they were on their way, Kurenai decided to call out her team. She had already spotted them, also sitting at the back of the class.

"Team eight. Please come down here." She asked politely. She was the authority here, but there was the right time and the right place to show it. For now being polite was a good strategy in her opinion.

* * *

Naruto looked at the two adults, who had just walked into the room. He instantly recognised Asuma, but the woman by his side was a stranger to him. She was very pretty, he had to admit. But the most astonishing thing about her were her red eyes. Upon entering she looked around the class and her eyes lingered for a second longer on him and his team mates than on the others. Naruto instantly perked up. 

"Hey, guys." He whispered to his two friends, who in turn bowed their heads a little bit in his direction in order to hear a little bit better. "I think that lady is going to be our jounin instructor." He whispered.

"Yes, you might be right." Said Shino, who also didn't miss the look all three of them received.

Hinata just smiled, recognising the former chuunin who had been assigned to escort her to school, when she was about six years old on a regular basis.

As the bearded jounin called for his team, more jounins started filling in into the classroom. The trio watched Shikamaru, Chouji and Ino making their way down. Then Naruto and his friends heard their team number being called. They turned their attention back to the red eyed woman standing in the front of the class. Once again those red eyes were set on them and this time there was no mistaking about who their sensei was going to be.

Shino stood up first, closely followed by Naruto and Hinata. While all of this commenced more and more jounins were calling for their teams, resulting in almost every single genin in the class trying to get to the front of the room. Some of them started climbing onto tables and jumping forward to meet their new teachers. The Kyubi vessel was about to do the same, but Hinata held him back. Not that she was physically capable of it, but just a slight tug on his sleeve sufficed to calm the ever hyperactive genin. On the other hand the silent bug user patiently waited for everyone in front of them to reach their goal, obviously not willing to get himself be absorbed into a the mass of moving people. Finally, when most of the genins were either excitedly talking to their respective instructors, or were already out of the class, Shino moved forward, allowing his friends to follow behind him. When they arrived at their destination, the class was empty save for team eight and another three people. Naruto chuckled sadistically. He was obviously right about the Uchiha getting Kakashi as a teacher. If the jounin was anything like he was when he led Naruto's ANBU squad, then team seven was in for a long wait.

* * *

After a few seconds of silence, Kurenai spoke up. 

"Hello. My name is Yuuhi Kurenai and as you might have figured out, I am going to be your jounin instructor." She took a look around the room, noticing the three scowling genin, seated at separate desks. She sighed pitying them for having Kakashi as a teacher and at the same time pitying Kakashi for having such an obviously troublesome team. She returned her attention to her own charges. "I suggest we move somewhere more comfortable to get to know each other better. Does anyone know such a place?" She inquired.

As expected, Naruto was the one who answered her question.

"Yeah, in the academy yard there are a few places, where the three of us usually hang around, so one of them should do."

Kurenai nodded and gestured for him to lead the way, walking beside him, the other two members of the team following close behind. Of course, the blonde genin being himself couldn't wait until they reached their goal and started firing questions as soon as they were out of the door.

"Ne, Kurenai-sensei, are we going to do missions right away, or are we going to train for some time first?"

Kurenai smiled a little bit.

"First all three of you have to pass a test, in order to prove, that you are truly worthy of being Konoha shinobi." She replied.

"Ano…My father told me about it and I would like to know, what kind of test this is going to be." The red eyed kunoichi was a little surprised to hear the shy Hinata actually ask a question. She remembered that when she was still a chuunin and was ordered to escort the girl to the academy, she was so shy that she would often start stuttering or even _faint _ if someone tried to talk to her. And here she was, asking her a question, without any sign of stuttering. Kurenai smiled once again. Obviously the girl had gained at least _some_ confidence in herself. She was still speaking awfully quiet though.

"I will test how well you work as a team, as well as your personal abilities. I cannot tell you any details, but be well prepared. I will not make this easy." She answered in a stern voice. In the meantime they made it out of the building and were heading towards two of the stone benches that were positioned under some trees at the far end of the yard and were facing each other. She spied Asuma and his team heading away from the academy grounds in the direction of the shopping district, where a lot of restaurants and fast food shops could be found. Somehow she wasn't surprised.

"Wouldn't expect anything less." Naruto grinned. Then he abruptly stopped, making his companions also stop to look at him. His face was set in a frown and he glanced at his sensei.

"You won't test us on the bunshin jutsu, would you?" He asked suspiciously. Kurenai could have sworn, that if her team didn't consist of Hinata and Shino, they would be lying on their face in a nice little face fault.

"No, Naruto, I will only test you on what you are _able _to do, not the other way around. After all, this is not the academy any more." She answered after recovering. The blonde grinned and scratched the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Yeah, I just can't do it. I can do kage bunshin though." He piped up. While Kurenai was busy being astonished, another frown appeared on his face. "Hey…How come you know my name? We haven't introduced ourselves yet." He asked suspiciously. Kurenai recovered and sighed.

"I have gathered all the information about the three of you as soon as I was told that you three are going to be my team. It is only natural, that I would know your names." She replied. Honestly, the boy was a little _too_ suspicious. Then again, he was probably taught that way by the ANBU.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that." Naruto reverted back to his 'scratching the neck and being embarrassed' mode.

"Never mind."

Finally they reached the benches and took a seat, Kurenai sitting on the opposite side, facing her three students.

"Well then. As I said, I already gathered some information about you, but there was little said about you as people and not as shinobi-to-be. Let's start with some introductions. I will begin." Kurenai proposed and was rewarded with a triple nod.

"My name is Yuuhi Kurenai. My hobbies are painting and playing flute. I also enjoy growing flowers and reading, if the book is well written. My old goal in life was to become a jounin, but seeing as I already reached it, my new goal are the three of you." She said and watched with slight amusement as all three faces became confused. Even the stoic Aburame raised his eyebrows.

"What I mean is, I want to make sure, that the three of you become respected shinobi of this village and reach your own personal dreams." She explained. Hinata smiled a little, while beginning to blush, and Naruto just grinned.

"If you pass the test tomorrow, that is." Kurenai finished feeling pleasure, as the joyous faces abruptly fell. With a smile she leaned back, letting the three of them decide, who was next up. Again it was up to the unofficial leader of the team to speak up.

"Alright. Let's see… My name is Uzumaki Naruto. My hobbies are mostly training and hanging around with my friends here." He grinned at Shino and Hinata. "I like to read, but only when I have nothing else to do. What else… Oh yeah. I want to prove to the whole village, that I am not the one they are taking me for. That's all, I think." He finished. Hinata had a slightly confused look on her face and Shino had once again raised his eyebrows in wonder. However Naruto didn't seem to want to say or explain anything else and Kurenai nodded, indicating that the next student should start his introduction.

Shino took a deep breath and began speaking.

"My name is Aburame Shino. I don't really think that this could be described as a hobby, but I usually spend my time, taking care of the kikkai bugs of my family as well as my own colony. As Naruto has already indicated, the three of us usually spend some time together, either training or relaxing from time to time. Just as yourself I value a good book. My goal in life…" He trailed off as if trying to find some fitting description. "My goal in life is to become the greatest bug user Konoha… no, the World has ever seen. I want people to understand that bugs are nothing to be afraid of and nothing to look down upon." He finished. Kurenai was impressed by the heat of his words, however hard to notice it was.

Hinata waited until the jounin gave her a curt nod and began.

"My name is Hyuuga Hinata. I like to be with Naruto-kun and Shino-kun, be it training or going out for a snack…Umm, I don't really have time to read, because of my duties as the heiress of the clan, but I also enjoy it, when I have some free time. As for my dream… I intend to change my clan's politics." After she said that her eyes grew wide and she clapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh… I-I… Please… D-don't tell my father I just said that." She pleaded in a whisper. Kurenai could just smile in approval.

"Don't worry, Hinata. We will not tell anything to your father or anyone from your clan. But I personally have to agree with you. I also think that some rules of the Hyuuga clan are very…outdated." She finished and the pale eyed girl's face relaxed considerably. She managed a weak smile and a silence ensued. After a long pause Kurenai stood up.

"All right. The test is going to be tomorrow morning. Meet me at the entrance of the academy at eight o'clock and I will show you to our team's training area. Depending on the result of the test, we will also complete a mission. For now you are dismissed." She finished. Her red eyes watched as the two boys bid her and each other farewell and walked off the academy grounds. She turned her gaze at the only remaining team member, Hinata, who was standing there and nervously putting her index fingers together.

"What is it, Hinata?" The older kunoichi finally asked after the girl didn't seem able to bring forth even a single syllable.

"I-It's nothing, Kurenai-sensei… I… I just wanted to say, t-that I'm glad you are our jounin instructor." The girl said, unconsciously falling back to her stuttering habit. She raised her lavender eyes to meet Kurenai's red ones and smiled.

"I'm also glad, you three are in my team. Say… What do you think if I walk you back to your mansion?" Kurenai offered. She was glad to see how the timid girl had developed and walking her back would give them some time to talk. The genjutsu user intended to ask Hinata a little bit about the two boys, and how their friendship came to be, but she supposed a little catching up wouldn't hurt either.

"Just like back then?" The Hyuuga heiress asked, her smile widening.

"Yes, just like the old times." Kurenai answered also smiling. Together they started walking out of the academy and into the busy streets of Konoha.

As they walked and chattered about this and that, Kurenai felt, that somehow she liked the idea of teaching a team. And that this particular one would be with her for some time.

* * *

**A/N: **Yeah, another chapter done! What do you say? Love it? Hate it? Anyway, if you ask me it was a little bit weak in the middle. Still at leas I've got my spell check running again, hope you notice the difference. As usual, I am happy to see all and any reviews. 

Next chapter is going to be about the test (well duh). I might slip in a short interlude before it though, I haven't decided yet.


	5. Interlude

**A/N: **WARNING! This is not the next chapter! You do not have to read this. In fact this is not really a part of the story. It is just something that I wanted to write, in order to make the characters more... human, I guess. I don't know if I managed it, though. This interlude has no influence at the plot of the story. And finally, the last warning: this came out pretty dark, I think. Or confusing. Take your pick. Anyway. _If_ you are going to read it, then please tell me your opinion. I have never written anything like this before, and am a little confused as to how it came to be in the first place.

**Interlude**

**Home Sweet Home**

Naruto trudged through the streets of Konoha. They were filled with people, mostly commoners with an occasional shinobi passing by. The blonde tried to ignore the glares he was receiving. One would suspect, that after twelve years of this he would get used to it.

But he didn't.

He had to give the shinobi some credit though. At least they, or rather most of them didn't glare at him. They, having at least some knowledge of the shinobi arts had faith in their former leader, the Yondaime. But the other citizens of Konoha, who had no idea how chakra or anything else from the shinobi world worked just didn't understand it. Sadly, they made up the most of the hidden village's population.

Of course Naruto knew, that people, who had lost something important to them usually just needed something to take their emotions out on. Otherwise they would sink into the pits of despair, hopelessness and depression. They needed a scapegoat. He just hated the fact that it had to be him.

As he reached one of the more deserted streets he allowed himself to relax a little and gazed at the sky. On the far edge of the horizon he could see some dark clouds heading his way.

The blonde proceeded in the direction of the house his apartment was located in. The way was mostly uneventful, seeing as the house was built at the far edge of Konoha, and the whole area was mostly uninhabited.

Naruto hated it.

He spied the green, old building ahead of him. Shortly after he was climbing the stairs to the third floor and opening the door to his home.

After opening the door, he stood still in the entrance.

Gods, how he hated it.

He didn't have anything against the house. He didn't have anything against the neighbourhood either.

He just couldn't stand the loneliness. After the Hokage sponsored him with the gift of his own place Naruto had been overjoyed. It remained this way until the fateful day he found out about the thing that was sealed within him.

The blonde sighed and stepped inside, closing the door behind him. He walked inside the room, that was serving as the sleeping room and living room at the same time. After all one single person didn't need much.

Naruto allowed himself to relax into the couch. He was dead tired and wanted to sleep, but the usual uneasiness, that always appeared when he was alone didn't let him fall asleep immediately. It was always this way.

When he was alone he just couldn't help but feel that he wasn't. He never met Kyubi before, nor did he have contact with it in some way. But he _felt_ that it was there. And that the only thing keeping it from tearing him, his friends and the whole village apart was some ink on his stomach, that wasn't even visible.

The first raindrops started hitting the roof. Some time later a downpour engulfed the village of the Leaf.

Naruto liked the rain.

The steady drumming of raindrops against his window and the roof gave him something to listen to, something to distract himself with. He also liked the way the air smelled after the rain stopped. It reminded him of watermelons and freshly cut grass.

The blonde stood up, took a chair from the table and positioned it before the window, taking a seat in it. He watched as droplets of water lazily slid down the glass of his window, making complicated patterns on their way down.

The genin rested his elbows on the windowsill and supported his head with his hands.

A flash of lightning crossed the sky and shortly after the deep rumble of thunder followed.

Narutos eyelids began to grow heavy as he watched and listened to the rain. After some time the blonde's head slumped limply and his breathing evened out.

Naruto was asleep.

An hour later, when the rain stopped and the clouds drifted away, sun shone through the still wet window, right on the blonde boy's face. He smiled a little in his sleep, but didn't wake up.

* * *

**The reason behind the dream**

After Kurenai had walked her home, the young Hyuuga heiress was called into the family dojo to meet her father. She walked the corridors of the mansion, her bare feet barely making a sound on the wooden floor.

The maids, butlers and branch members of the Hyuuga smiled at her as she passed by. Hinata smiled back, her eyes often drifting up to the exposed foreheads of her relatives. After they turned away to mind their own business her smile slipped.

Soon she reached the double doors, that led to the dojo. She could hear the tapping of feet, as the occupants of the room trained.

She slid the door open and bowed respectfully. As she lifted her head she could see her father in his training gi and her little sister. The girl was out of breath and had small bruises on the exposed skin of her arms and legs, her gi covering only half of them. Her father seemed to be in perfect order.

"Hello, Otou-sama, Imoutou-san." Hinata greeted.

Haiashi nodded at her and turned to his second daughter, who had caught her breath by now.

"Onee-san." She greeted back.

"Hanabi, take a break. We will continue later this afternoon." The Hyuuga head told her.

"Yes, Otou-sama." The girl replied and headed out of the room.

When the door slid closed behind her, Haiashi returned his attention to his first-born.

"Let us take a walk." He said and headed for the second exit of the dojo, which led to the garden of the estate.

Hinata followed suit.

"Today you have been assigned a team. Who are the members and the jounin instructor?" He inquired, not looking at the girl walking beside him.

"Our jounin instructor is Yuuhi Kurenai. As for the team members they are Aburame Shino and Uzumaki Naruto." Hinata replied.

"I see." Was his only answer. The two came to a halt before a small pond with some koi swimming in it. They stayed there for a couple of minutes, saying nothing. Rain-clouds hid the sun and Haiashi turned to walk back inside.

Once again Hinata followed. No sooner had they stepped inside, the first raindrops started hitting down. The Hyuuga head sighed deeply.

"Hinata…" He began, but stopped in mid sentence. After another pause he turned away and started slowly walking away.

"Make sure you don't drag your team down. I expect great things of you, as my daughter. Don't dissapoint me." He said and turned a corner, his steps growing fainter with every second.

Hinata wished he finished the first sentence.

She turned her head to look at the garden again. After some time passed she started walking in the opposite direction her father had taken.

As she drew closer to her room, she passed an open air training ground, that was located at the eastern side of the mansion. She could see her cousin, Neji, still there, in the rain. He was training, as usual. As if feeling her eyes on him he stopped, turned and stared back at her, some of his brown, wet hair getting in his eyes. His gaze was cold and unnerving.

Hinata sighed, turned away and began walking again. After she disappeared behind one of the walls, she could hear Neji begin his training again, mercilessly hitting the wooden log with his palms.

Soon she was in her room. The rain didn't stop and even some thunder could be heard from the outside. Hinata's duties demanded her to change her clothes and be down for dinner. She sighed again and began undressing. A kimono was already laid out for her on her bed by one of the maids.

She wondered, how the branch family members could still smile at her, with the horrible bird cage seal on their foreheads. After the Hyuuga heiress changed, she faced herself in the mirror.

Her usually passive expression changed. She wondered, what it was. Confidence?… No. Hope?… No, it was determination.

Someday…Someday they would be a family. Not just relatives. Someday her father will not be afraid to finish his sentences. By becoming a genin, she would be one tiny step closer to that goal. She was going to make sure this day came.

Step by step.

Hinata turned around and walked in the direction of the room, the dinner was to be held at.

* * *

**A walk in the park**

Unlike his team mates, Shino didn't head home immediately after they met their new sensei. After the meeting, he headed for the local park, seeing as he didn't have any other plans for the first half of the day.

The park was mostly empty save for a few people who took it as a shortcut to wherever they were going. The silent bug user walked deeper into the park grounds until he came upon a small lake. It was surrounded by trees from all sides with a little space between the roots and the water.

Shino took a seat under a low branch of a nearby oak. He lowered his chakra and the bugs residing within him started crawling out. They proceeded to crawl around, some of them took flight and sailed around the clearing, over the lake.

Shino watched them a small smile, unseen by the world around him, playing on his lips.

Two bugs that crawled out had a small cocoon with them.

Shino picked it up and inspected it. It was his little project. Something he took considerable pride in. Not two weeks ago this had been merely a caterpillar of green colour, with strange yellow stripes on it's back. Shino had spent a whole weekend searching for it in the woods outside of Konoha.

When the cocoon would open, one of the most beautiful butterflies of the Fire Country should surface. He didn't know, whether he was able to make the caterpillar and thus, the future butterfly dependable on his chakra. After all, all insects were different. The kikkai bugs of his family were simply the most useful in battle and relatively easy to tame.

Other bug users were known to use insects like mantis, bees, locusts and other insects. But none of them have ever tried taming a butterfly. Why? Because they were useless in battle.

Shino had to agree with the rest of the bug using world. But he did what he did, not because he intended to use what was going to hatch from the cocoon in a fight.

He did it for the beauty of it. Even though in his eyes every single insect was beautiful in it's own way, he wanted something that every one would also find beautiful. He wanted recognition. He wanted to have something inside of him, that people wouldn't run away from, that they could admire, instead of shying away from it. Even if only for a short while.

Today was the day the cocoon was supposed to hatch. Shino watched the cocoon intently, noticing out of the corner of his eye that his other bugs were slowly returning to him. Soon they were under the shelter of the leaves.

About five minutes later the rain that was gathering in the sky started slowly falling down, growing stronger by the second.

Shino didn't mind.

His bugs retreated completely under his skin, leaving the cocoon behind.

The silent boy sat there for more than an hour, until the rain stopped and the sun resurfaced again. Finally he could see some movement from the cocoon.

So very slowly it was torn open from the inside and the butterfly was exposed to the world. He watched in fascination as the butterfly attached itself to a twig, that had fallen from the oak and spread it's wings, so they would dry up and harden enough for it to fly.

Another hour passed, and neither Shino nor the butterfly moved. Then the insect spread it's wings and flapped them a couple of times experimentally. Then it took flight.

Shino watched from behind his sunglasses as the small spot in the air grew smaller until it disappeared in the leaves of the surrounding trees. The boy sighed in disappointment. It didn't work after all.

For another hour, Shino remained where he was, sitting under the oak and listening to the buzzing of the bugs under his skin. Perhaps the butterfly would return.

**A/N: **As I said before, I would like some opinions on this one. And not to wory. I am already working on the next chapter and it should be done by the end of the week.


	6. The Test

**AN: **Hey, everyone. Sorry to keep you waiting for so long, but I couldn't do a thing about it. My computer died some time ago, with almost all of the vital parts of it destroyed. The only things intact are the Cd and DVD recorders as well as the hard drive and the floppy. I first thought that only my mainboard and graphics card were frayed, but after some further inspection I recognised that almost EVERYTHING was damaged in some way. Right now, I'm posting this from a friend, since my own pc is still useless, and I honestly don't know when I will be able to update again, since I can't even write the next chapter right now. I assure you, however, that I will not drop this fic or anything of the sort. On with the story: enjoy.

**The Test**

The three members of team eight were gathered together in front of the academy, as they were told by their sensei. Without talking to each other they all arrived half an hour too early, not wanting to take chances of being late. Now, standing in front of each other they somehow felt extremely dumb.

"So…You guys decided to come early too, eh?"

"As usual, you state the obvious…Naruto."

"…"

The conversation wasn't going well so early in the morning. Thus it was successfully abandoned.

Half an hour later, when the arms of the clock, that counted the seconds and minutes came to a halt on the twelve and the arm, counting the hours pointed in the direction of the eight, a whirl of flower petals announced the arrival of Yuuhi Kurenai.

The trio turned to greet their teacher. Kurenai allowed a little smile, as the three genins jogged up to her.

"Morning, Kurenai-sensei!" Announced the blonde enigma, Naruto.

She also received a nod from Shino and a quiet "Good morning." from Hinata.

"Good morning. Now then, follow me. We are going to use the training area number twenty seven. It is very conveniently positioned near the Hokage tower." Kurenai began, as she started walking, passing some of the students, who were running late for their lessons at the academy. Her fellow jounins were rather disappointed that she got this specific area for her and her teams' training. The training area was well positioned, which allowed the team to meet and be off to the tower to get their mission. Naturally the first ones there had a greater list of missions to choose from. Very convenient, indeed. Kurenai chuckled to herself, once again pitying Kakashi's team. Tardy as he was, his team was sure to get only missions they definitely didn't want to do. Then again, the man had never passed a team before. She wondered if this year may become an exception.

They walked in silence, watching the city slowly wake up. The streets were peaceful, seeing as the children were either at normal schools or at the shinobi academy. The rest of the villagers were setting up shops and minding what other business they needed to attend to. The sun was still red, but quickly rising.

After passing through the shopping district that was on their way, they reached the Hokage tower. Kurenai motioned to the left, and her charges followed. Slowly Naruto was able to strike up a small conversation with Hinata, which Shino joined shortly after. Kurenai listened in and wasn't surprised to hear them discussing the test. Their wild suspicions ranged from fighting against her to a written exam. Too bad, she didn't have anything like that in mind. After another two minutes they reached their destination.

Naruto surveyed the training area. There wasn't much to it, really. Three heavy wooden logs stuck out of the earth, the ground was dusty and without any vegetation, seeing as it was exterminated by the constant use of the training place. As was common in Konoha, the area was designed in a way to imitate a small clearing inside a forest, which was actually something more like a park.

The three friends moved to the centre of the area and turned to Kurenai in expectation.

"Bring it on!" Naruto announced and gave her his usual grin.

"Alright. In order to pass the test and become full fledged genins of Konoha…" The trio simultaneously held their breath. "You will have to play a game of tag against me."

There was silence. The wind picked up some stray leaves and carried them away with a low howling.

"Ano…Kurenai-sensei…Could you please repeat that? I think I misunderstood you. Did you just say we are going to play…tag?"

"Yes tag, or more precisely a mixture of tag and hide and seek." She explained, looking smugly at their completely bewildered expressions. Well, Shino only had both of his eyebrows raised, but Kurenai supposed, that this was as far as he could get to show any facial expression.

"Could you…elaborate?" The bug user asked.

"Of course. We will be playing until midday. You have the handicap, that all three of you have to always hide together. I on the other hand will give myself a handicap, by not using any techniques that require chakra. Meaning: no genjutsu or ninjutsu. You on the other hand can use anything you like. We will be using all of Konoha as our playground." She explained, grinning slightly.

"Just wait a moment!" Naruto burst out. "How is that supposed to test us? I mean, sure, it seems like we are going to be working as a team, and we will be using a lot of stealth, but still…"

Kurenai chuckled.

"Just as you said, teamwork is the keyword. I will tell you a little secret. Most of the jounins test their students on teamwork only. Or rather they test all of their abilities, but only the teamwork decides, whether they pass or not. I on the other hand, can see that the three of you are more than willing to work together, and even more so, you are already _used_ to be working together to some extent. Basically it is enough for me to pass you. But before that I want to see, how well your abilities compliment each other. You see, sometimes even if a group has team spirit, they only get in each other's way, even though they don't mean to. If that were the case, it would be wiser for you to return to the academy for another year, and wait, if more suitable team-mates come up. As for testing your battle abilities… I think you were already sufficiently tested in the academy, thus we will take a look at them them later and see, what each of you has to work on. After all, fighting is only a tiny part of what being a true ninja means." She finished. Actually the kunoichi couldn't see, how the three of them could get in each other's way. Naruto and Hinata were both close combat fighters, with the blond already having immense experience for his age and the young Hyuuga heiress specializing in precision strikes. Considering Naruto's abnormal healing abilities, that Kurenai had read about in his file, even if Hinata were to accidentally hit him with her juuken, it wouldn't affect him much. Shino was likely to end up as the ranged fighter of the team as well as support. His chakra eating bugs were more than up to the task.

In her mind she had already decided to let the team pass. All she had to do, in order to ensure their success was not to go too seriously about this little game.

"Do you have any other questions?" Yuuhi asked, after a short pause, when her team seemed to contemplate on what they had just heard. They seemed somewhat insecure but shook their heads nonetheless.

"Good. Until midday it is your turn to hide. If I haven't found you until then, we meet up here and you try to find me. In order to win, you not only have to see me from a distance, but also touch or hit me. Same goes for me as well." She elaborated further.

"Are you ready?" Receiving positive nods in return she smirked.

"Begin!"

* * *

A tall man in in a red jacket and faded green ninja attire walked the streets of Konoha once again. His spiky white hair, that was tied with a ribbon at his shoulders surrounded his custom made forehead protector. His destination: the Hokage tower. 

The legendary Sannin Jiraya had returned.

He looked at the buzzing streets of his home village and sighed. He would have preferred to perform some…research, to announce his presence in the village, so to say, but alas, the importance of the news he had to bring to his old teacher did not allow it. Upon reaching the tower he stopped to take a short look at the monument, that was visible from almost every spot in Konoha. Taking in the features of his fallen student, the man walked on.

He was stopped dead in his tracks however, when all of a sudden a regular _horde_ of people jumped out of the small park located to the left of the tower. Upon closer inspection Jiraya noticed that the horde was somewhat…repetitive. It consisted of only three people. Or rather it consisted of about thirty trios. A blonde boy with whisker marks on his cheeks, another boy, slightly taller and wearing sunglasses as well as having dark brown hair colour, along with a pale eyed, blue haired girl.

Upon reaching the tower the group split up, leaving in trios and jumping over the roofs of the surrounding buildings.

After the last of them disappeared from view, a woman, whom the Sannin would have otherwise not minded spending some time with jumped out of the same park. Her red eyes were wide with astonishment as well as confusion. Taking a look around and ignoring Jiraya completely the woman left, following the path some of the former groups had taken.

The toad hermit had to wonder what the hell this was all about. After standing there for a few seconds he decided that the spectacle was over and proceeded to climb the stairs of the place his sensei worked at.

* * *

Naruto snickered. After their sensei had declared the beginning of the game he immediately made almost a hundred shadow clones, two thirds of which quickly henged into replicas of Shino and Hinata. After a sufficient amount of running around, clutching the hands of his _real_ team mates he decided, that Kurenai should be confused enough by now and he along with his clones made a spectacular escape, scattering upon reaching the Hokage tower. The look on their sensei's face was priceless. 

He took a look around. Team eight was currently on top of a building, surveying the chaos the clones caused all around the village. They were lying on their stomachs, their heads barely above the edge of the roof, in order to lessen the probability of them being spotted. Some of the clones also took positions on top of some roofs, so the real team wouldn't stand out too much. Suddenly he felt a slight headache. His eyes widened, when a memory of something that couldn't have possibly happened flooded into his mind. He clearly remembered himself hiding in a small restaurant in the shopping district, with what appeared to be Shino and Hinata by his side. Then he remembered Kurenai running into the restaurant, and with an incredible speed closing in on him and lightly punching him. That's when the memory ended. He also realised that he could remember this very same memory from another two different points of view, namely from where Hinata and Shino were.

With widening eyes he realised, just what had happened, even though he had no idea, how the memories of his clones had reached him.

He turned to his team mates who noticed none of this. Shino looked relaxed and Hinata had her Byakugan activated, granting her nearly three-sixty degree of vision.

"One group of the clones was just destroyed." He stated bluntly. Hinata nodded, having just witnessed it with her bloodline. Shino pushed his glasses higher up his nose.

"Right now we have nothing to worry about. I can pinpoint the location of our sensei without difficulty at any given time, even if she leaves Hinata's Byakugan range." He stated.

Naruto frowned.

"How come?" He asked. Then it dawned on him.

"You have her bugged already, don't you?" The blond inquired.

"Since yesterday, actually." Shino admitted, smirking behind his collar.

"Man, I still think you have us bugged as well. You just don't admit it." Naruto grumbled. Shino smirked even wider, but as usual, it went unnoticed.

* * *

The Sandaime Hokage sat at his desk, shifting through mission reports and other papers that either needed him to sign them or were merely informing him of the recent happenings in Fire Country. With practised movements he proceeded to put his signature on every piece of paper, that needed it, after quickly reading it. He was interrupted from his work by a soft knocking on the door. 

After a short pause, a young chuunin stuck her head through the door.

"Hokage-sama, Jiraya-sama has returned and wishes to speak to you immediately. Shall I let him in?"

Sarutobi raised his eyebrows. It was very much unlike Jiraya to actually report to him first thing after getting back to the village. Usually his former student would conduct some "research" for those books of his, then get himself drunk and only after that come visit his old sensei. Usually he was dragged here, since he was too drunk to walk straight.

"Yes, let him in, please." The old man replied.

The door was opened wider and in stepped no other than the legendary toad hermit. After shooing away the chuunin secretary he proceeded to greet Sarutobi and take a seat in front of the Hokage's desk. Not beating around the bush, he stated his business.

"Sensei, I'm afraid I have very bad news." He began. "You remember when I told you about this Akatsuki organization, right?" The Hokage nodded and Jiraya proceeded his explanation.

"My spies have reported a major increase in activity among their ranks. It seems that they somehow managed to capture two jinchuuriki already, but what is even more frightening, they managed to extract the demons from them. From what I was able to gather it have been the five and eight-tails." He made a pause, to allow his sensei to process the information.

"I see. Have you been able to find out, what the reason behind their actions is?"

"No. But it seems, that something unexpected has occurred, that made them change their plans and begin to act now, rather then in a few years, as my spies had assumed first. I don't know what it is, not for sure anyway. I _have_ some information, but it isn't confirmed yet. I will come to it later."

"So, you are afraid, that they might come here to take away the boy." Sarutobi stated, rather than asked.

"Yes. What is more, we barely know anything about the actual members of Akatsuki. The only one we have some information on is Uchiha Itachi, but even that is most certainly hopelessly outdated by now. The information regarding the other members is considered top secret in their former villages, and will not be given away at any cost. It is safe to assume, however, that they are more than enough to deal with the best of our shinobi, if the rest of them is anything like Itachi, which I strongly suspect. If they were to come here, we wouldn't be able to stop them. I might be able to take on one of them, but rumour says they are always travelling in pairs. I shudder to think, about what will happen if all of them were to show up here."

The Hokage nodded and closed his eyes in contemplation. He would rather die than give Naruto into their hands for multiple reasons. First was, that he felt, he owed the boy, closely followed by voice of reason, telling him that if Akatsuki were to get their hands on all nine of the Biju, they would be ultimately unstoppable. But what could he do to protect him, without endangering the village? The most logical idea would be to send the boy away, somewhere where the Akatsuki wouldn't be able to find him. But that was too risky. If Naruto were to be sent so far away, it was most likely that they couldn't keep tabs on him, seeing as sending reports back and forth could easily be tracked. There was also no guarantee that there was a place on the face of earth, where the Kyubi vessel could hide from his pursuers. The Akatsuki didn't consist of only S-ranked criminals for nothing. The next best thing would be to make sure the boy was out on missions outside of Konoha for the majority of the time. But he was merely a genin now, so that was barely possible. He could always transfer him back to the ANBU, but he doubted that Naruto would agree to that. Then again, the boy was a shinobi of Konoha, and Sarutobi was the Hokage. Thus the boy would have to obey.

Sandaime let out a tired sigh.

"What do you suggest, Jiraya?" He asked.

His student seemed to be deep in thought as well. After some time he obviously came to a conclusion.

"The best thing to do, is to train the boy to the point when he can protect himself." He said. Sarutobi was forced to wonder whether his student had gone nuts. They were talking about nine highly ranked criminals here. The boy was at chuunin level at best. Training him to become better, would take years!

Not thinking twice he repeated his thoughts to Jiraya.

"That might be true, but he has a major advantage." The toad sannin grinned, making the Hokage lean closer.

"And what would that be?" He inquired.

"Kyubi." And indeed, a major advantage it was.

* * *

Kurenai couldn't _believe _it. Oh, of course she expected a lot of her new students but not _this _much. She scolded herself for giving herself a handicap of not using any chakra based techniques. Without them, she realised, she didn't even stand a chance in this little game. She could run around the village, taking out clones all day, but who was to say that the original Naruto wasn't producing more of them at this very minute? From the ANBU records she knew that the boy had an unbelievable amount of chakra supplies, meaning he could probably keep it up for a very long time. Not to mention Hinata's Byakugan. How was she supposed to get close to them, when it only had one weakness and she wouldn't be able to exploit it anyway, without being spotted by the other two team mates? And Shino… She didn't know, what stealth and tracking skills the silent boy possessed, but she was pretty sure he had also contributed his part. 

Briefly Kurenai wondered if she was a suitable teacher for the three of them, but quickly dismissed the thought.

The kunoichi looked at a clock in a window of a shop she had just passed. She had fifteen minutes left, and she still had no idea, where her students were.

The passer byes had to cover the ears of their children, for the following string of words was really something that kids weren't supposed to hear.

* * *

"Jiraya. What exactly do you mean by that?" Sarutobi furrowed his brows. "It is true, that the presence of the demon has expanded the boy's natural chakra reserves, increased his stamina, as well as granted him an extraordinary regeneration ability, but other than that I don't see any advantages." 

The toad sannin smirked.

"That just shows that you're getting old."

"Stop the insults and get back to the topic, please." The serious tone of the Third made Jiraya grin sheepishly and rub his neck.

"Sorry." He apologised. "What I mean is, unlike any other normal people, Naruto can push himself as hard as he wants to. If, say, a regular genin were to undertake serious training to increase his physical strength and speed, it would take him years to accomplish his goal, because he wouldn't be able to train hard enough without damaging his body. Naruto on the other hand, doesn't have to fear anything of the sort. The most useful ability, that he has been granted by the demon, would be his regeneration. Let's come back to the genin example. He goes and trains one whole day, until he can't move any more. That would render him immobile for at least two more days, as well as barely give any results, because straining the muscles to their fullest does more damage to them, than strengthening them.

And now, Naruto tries to do the same. Because his regeneration ability is active twenty four-seven, his muscles will be repaired and healed, even while he is training, not allowing any damage to come to them, and making them stronger in the process. Not to mention, that unlike the normal genin, Naruto will be up and about on the next day, without having to recover for a long period of time." When the white haired pervert finished, he crossed his arms over his chest, closed his eyes and nodded a couple of times, obviously proud of himself.

"I see your reasoning, but still, it will take a lot of time, to get him anywhere near the level of someone like Itachi. Not to mention, that while physical strength is good and necessary, it will do him little good if he were to be subjected to S-ranked jutsus. And even though he might be able to learn some of the more dangerous jutsus with the help of his Kage Bunshins…" Jiraya's eyes snapped open.

"He can do the Kage Bunshin?" He asked, a little surprised.

"Yes, but I refuse to teach him any more dangerous jutsus at his age. Despite everything he is still just a child, and children should not be trusted with something, that can potentially destroy the whole village. He should learn the jutsus at a slower pace, even though I admit that it would have to be faster than with the regular genins. I was thinking of transferring him back to ANBU for that. It would also guarantee that he is out of the village most of the time, making it harder for the Akatsuki to find him." Sarutobi said, sighing deeply. This didn't escape his student's attention.

"So…Where's the problem? The brat goes to the black ops and everything is fine. You said he was in the ANBU for four years already so he can obviously handle it."

"That's not it…" The Sandaime leaned back in his chair and started to stuff tobaccos into his pipe. When he finished he proceeded to light it and inhale deeply. After exhaling the Hokage returned his gaze to Jiraya. "From what I understand, Naruto wants to be a genin. This is only strengthened by the facts, that his two friends are on the same team as him."

"That's the problem?" The toad sannin scoffed. "Then just transfer them to ANBU as well, big deal…"

Sarutobi stared. Theoretically, it was possible.

"But they don't have any experience yet. I can't put them in danger like that."

"Then send them on a couple of C-ranked missions. I always thought that those D-ranked ones were a waste of time." The Make Out Tactics author suggested.

"I…will think about it."

* * *

**AN: ** Muhahahahaha! Am I not eveil? And you thought it was just another 'Naruto gets a different team' fic? Well, obviously it isn't. The next chapter will be probably a little bit of everything, as well as finishing off the test. As I said, I have no idea, when I will be able to post again, sorry about that. 


	7. The Test, Part 2

AN: Hey, everyone. First and foremost, thanks to everyone who reviewed so far, as well as to those who are going to review later. I am going to answer to reviews here, since my computer is still broken and writing pms like I usually do will take too long.

As you might have noticed, I like commas. In fact, I _love_ them. I **adore** them. I _**worship**_ them. The next chapter is going to look like this:,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Just kidding. Thanks for pointing it out to me, CaveDwellers. I will try to reduce their numbers from now on.

To Dragon Man 180. I wasn't sure about how strong they were. I just remembered that Orochimaru fled from Akatsuki because he was weaker than Itachi. In my opinion Orochimaru is pretty much the strongest of the Sannin, so I figured that Jiraya would be weaker than Itachi as well (Without summoning of course. With summoning he would kick Itachi's ass)

Dattereya, as much as I wish to be able to help you with the info on the Biju, I have to admit that everything that does not regard Kyubi or Shukaku I have no idea about. Well, I know that Nibi (the two tailed cat demon) has got some abilities that borderline necromancy but other than that I can't help you, sorry. Everything I might write in this story will be probably all thought up.

One Azn Dragon: Well…how do I put it, without being an ass about it? Have you skipped the previous chapters or something? I thought that I explained everything quite clearly. Besides, the fact that Naruto was an ANBU doesn't automatically mean that he knows Kage Bunshin. If you think about it, there are actually very little shinobi who know the skill. In the whole story, I have so far only seen Kakashi, Tsunade, Sarutobi and Naruto himself do it.

Captain Ronney. Since I don't want my first-born to be eaten I promise to continue the story.

Alright. That's it for now, or there will be more of my notes than of the chapter itself. Enjoy.

She stared silently at the ceiling. Her captors, or more likely her executioners had left her for now, leaving her on the cold stone that was some sort of an altar inside a cave. A few tears rolled down her cheeks. Was this how it was going to end? After all she had been through, was this how she was going to die? Slaughtered like a lamb, completely helpless to do anything about it? Not to mention that she was barely sixteen…

She took a look at the bloody stump that was once her arm. To think, with what ease that bastard had sliced them off… Not only her arms, but her legs as well. The only thing that kept her alive was the blasted demon within her. She would have probably died from the pain and blood loss by now otherwise.

From the corner of her eye she saw someone enter. The black cloak with red clouds on it was billowing around him lightly. She could see that he was not one of the two that had captured her, but somehow this didn't make her feel any better.

"I'm afraid it is time for us to start." The indifferent voice stated and she could feel him move around the cave, doing something. She had no idea what.

Soon enough she found out as she felt the demon within her being extracted and with it her very life being sucked out. She tried to scream but found that her voice failed her.

"This will take three days. Enjoy." The voice said. She felt him sit down nearby. The answers to her earlier questions came to her in a gruesome downpour as Nibi started whispering how once it was free it would be sure to come and visit her grave. The underlying meaning of it made it that much worse.

* * *

**The Test, Part 2 **

Kurenai glanced around her. She had placed a three layered genjutsu around herself that while not making her invisible to the Byakugan, made her much harder noticeable. A well developed Byakugan of someone like Hiashi Hyuuga would have little difficulty to pick up on her but Hinata's eyes had yet to develop to their full strength, much like a body of a child would mature and become stronger as time passed by. Right now the genjutsu queen, as she was called by her fellow chuunin when she was one herself, was hiding in a crowded area near the shopping district. After congratulating her charges on their success she told them that while hiding she would remove the handicaps from herself, allowing her to use chakra based techniques. The game started about fifteen minutes ago and Kurenai was easily able to escape her students. She suspected that Naruto could have probably kept up with her speed but the genins were still prohibited from leaving each other's side.

The kunoichi proceeded on her way through the crowd. Her plan was simple. Not let herself get caught until about half an hour before the two hours she had given them ran out. This proved to be harder than expected since barely five minutes ago she had already sighted the three genins dangerously close to her. Her genjutsu did it's work but the fact that they found her so quickly (even if they didn't know it) was disturbing. Was she slacking off so much, that three _genins_ could track her down in a matter of minutes? This was unheard of.

She turned a corner. And came face to face with her three charges.

"I thought you said she was heading this way." Naruto complained.

"She was. A mistake is highly unlikely." Shino remarked dryly, pushing his glasses higher up his nose.

"Genjutsu?" The blonde's eyes narrowed and scanned his surroundings. He did a handseal. "Kai!"

Nothing happened.

"She is using an advanced genjutsu, and she is using it on herself and not on us. You can only dispell it if you touch her…Naruto." The Kyubi vessel frowned but didn't retort with a wise-guy remark like he usually would have. Instead he turned to their third team-mate.

"Hinata?"

The girl nodded and went through a series of handseals, activating her bloodline. This was bad. From this distance there was a high possibility that even a not fully developed Byakugan could see through Kurenai's illusion. Not wanting to stick around that long the kunoichi jumped and started running on the rooftops. Behind her she could make out the voice of her silent student.

"She is heading to the right at a high speed."

How did the boy know? Right now she didn't have time to dwell upon it as she could hear her students jumping onto the roof mere seconds after her.

* * *

After dismissing Jiraya the Hokage sat at his desk for about an hour pondering his decissions, to make sure he didn't miss any details. 

Naruto and his friends had to be transferred back to ANBU as soon as possible. Making him train alone with a single teacher or multiple teachers was out of question. That would make the boy too independent. No matter how skilled he became in the process, he wouldn't stand a fleeting chance against multiple members of Akatsuki at the same time. Which was why he needed a team he could work well with. Not to mention that as soon as the dubious organisation found out about Shino and Hinata, they would not think twice before using them as bait to get to the Kyubi vessel. Thus they had to be trained as well. To drastically increase the skill of team eight, they would have to start out with C-ranked missions instead of the usual D-ranked ones. After that they would have to proceed to B-ranked missions within the time of one or two months. Not to mention that it was unheard of, that a genin team would do something like that.

ANBU it was then.

Sandaime didn't have any illusions about Kurenai. She was a great teacher if he said so himself. After all it was him who personally asked her to take on a team barely a year after she became Jounin. But even she had her limits. Frankly, Sandaime doubted that Kurenai could do it. Or rather that she _alone_ could do it.

The Kunoichi would need help. Sandaime pulled his trusty pipe from the table and twirled it in his fingers in contemplation.

Now, who would be the best choice to add to a standard five members of an ANBU squad? Considering that Naruto was on the team, it was obvious that the wisest choice would be 'Yamato' as he preferred to call himself. Him being a captain was also a plus. Sarutobi would have preferred to assign Jiraya to the task but he needed the self proclaimed Super Pervert to continue his information gathering. Not the one for his books though.

The Hokage lit his pipe and inhaled deeply. Yamato it was then. The next question… How was he going to tell his subordinates of his decision?

* * *

Naruto glared ahead. The bug Shino had planted on their teacher was helping, but only to a certain extent. Hinata had her Byakugan activated for almost an hour now and they were still chasing after a shadow. The blonde had to give their sensei credit. She sure as hell wasn't a jounin for nothing, outsmarting or rather overpowering Hinata's eyes like that. 

The girl in question squinted ahead with a frown. She could see something shimmering just about a hundred meters in front of her but the shape was far larger than a normal human. It was as if Kurenai had somehow managed to obscure her own chakra coils with a layer or two of something else. She now knew what to look for since she spotted this irregularity moving away from them back when they were supposed to ambush their teacher as Kurenai tried to turn into a side road forking away from the main street. Frankly Hinata doubted that she would be able to find this irregularity again if their teacher were to escape from them and out of the range of her eyes.

Naruto on the other hand didn't have a clue where Kurenai was. He was only following his team-mates. He did have more developed smell and hearing senses than your regular ninjas, but they didn't even come close to the Inuzuka clan, for instance. During his career as a shinobi Naruto had learned that it was vital for a ninja to know his own abilities even more than the abilities of his opponent. After all, how could someone win a fight (or a game of tag in this case) without even knowing his own limits? Working to expand those limits was an entirely other matter.

Shino was silent, as usual. One would never notice it but in fact he was angry. Well, angry might be taking it a bit too far. Shino was _annoyed_. Why? Because despite his bug giving him precise directions to their sensei they weren't able to even catch up to her let alone see and touch her in order to win the game. On the other hand, the genjutsu that Kurenai must have placed on herself had to be extremely strong to be able to overpower the Byakugan. And as all powerful jutsus it had to be draining on her chakra. With any luck she would have to drop the illusion in the next half an hour. This way they still would have more than enough time to catch her. Naruto's shadow clones would surround her and after that it would be only a matter of seconds. Even an experienced jounin couldn't get through a fight with three opponents (or with Naruto on the team, with a never-ending army of them) completely untouched. Just as he thought about it all, an idea popped into his head. Why not make sure Kurenai's chakra was drained a little _faster_? The silent boy smirked. Genjutsu only worked on mammals because they had a complicated enough brain to be able to mess with it. Insects on the other hand couldn't be swayed by something like this. Which was the only reason why they were able to follow the jounin so far. Her genjutsu covered literally everything. Her presence, her smell, her body, even her chakra. The bug user doubted that people Kurenai ran past even noticed that there was someone. Silently he beckoned his bugs to feast upon a tasty treat that was right in front of them.

Shino grinned. Not that anyone noticed.

* * *

Team seven was walking down the main street. Now officially genin of Konoha, they were battered, bruised but happy nonetheless. Well, Sakura and Kiba were happy. Sasuke didn't show any signs of emotion whatsoever, opting for a scowl instead. 

On their way they passed a restaurant. Sakura thought about proposing to have something to eat in order to get to know each other better. Of course she was interested mostly in what her crush had to tell, but she figured that having some info on Kiba would also be useful. If only to blackmail him later.

Suddenly she noticed three familiar faces in there. One of them was scowling at her, the other one had his cheeks stuffed and the third seemed to be either sleeping or napping. The one with stuffed cheeks turned in their direction and waved cheerfully. Kiba, followed her gaze and settled his eyes on the waving boy. He then grinned and made his way to the restaurant, unceremoniously grabbing the unsuspecting Sasuke by the collar and dragging him along. Sakura had no other choice but to follow.

Soon they were seated at the same table as team ten. Ino glared daggers at the pink haired kunoichi, which Sakura didn't hesitate to return. Sasuke was as passive as ever, apparently pretending that no one of them was even there. Chouji was talking animatedly with Kiba, with Shikamaru throwing in a word or two once in a while.

After about a minute Sakura noticed that there was apparently another person sitting at the table. She looked at the said person only to find a bearded man in standard shinobi attire, with a lit cigaret sticking out of the corner of his mouth looking at them with what seemed to be an amused expression on his face.

"Is that your jounin instructor?" Sakura whispered to her long time friend…or rival, whichever was fitting at the time.

"Yeah. He's the Hokage's son and is called Sarutobi Asuma." Ino replied with a frown.

"So…What test did he put you through?" The pink haired kunoichi inquired.

Ino's frown disappeared and was replaced with a slightly confused look.

"What test? We've only been sitting here and getting to know each other."

Sakura stared.

"You mean he didn't make you fight him or go through a life threatening test of some sort? Maybe he poisoned your food…"

"WHAT?" Ino jumped up and glared at Asuma, who was looking even more amused now.

"What is she talking about?" The blonde demanded.

"Oh… Some jounins choose to test their teams on teamwork and stuff like that, but I figured that you three are going to do just fine."

This time it was Sakura's turn to be baffled.

"You mean Kakashi-sensei did it to us just for fun?"

"No… I know that those three," Asuma pointed with his cancer stick at the members of team ten. "Know each other and their parents were an almost unbeatable team with their family jutsu, so I figured that there was no need to test them. You three on the other hand are almost three complete strangers thrown together. If I had you on my team I would have probably tested you as well. That and Kakashi is a sadistic bastard." Asuma finished looking pleased with himself.

Sakura blinked. As did Ino.

"Your sensei is a sadistic bastard?" The blonde inquired.

Sakura didn't know why, but she felt the need to protect their sensei to show that he was better than team ten's. Even if deep within her she knew Asuma was right.

"Well, he is certainly strange but I wouldn't call him sadistic." She finished lamely. As hard as she tried, she just couldn't deny the bastard part. The way he got her with that genjutsu of injured Sasuke…

"So, did he pass you?" Asuma asked, mild interest creeping into his voice.

"Yeah, he passed us, alright." Kiba growled. "After humiliating us and tying me up to one of the training logs, that is…"

Asuma just laughed.

"You're the first team he passed, you know that? You must have been really something for him to accept you."

Kiba grinned, showing off his sharp teeth.

"Of course we are!" He exclaimed.

"Hmm…Who else might have passed though? Kakashi-sensei said that usually only three teams were allowed to be genin from the whole graduating class…" Sakura wondered. The whole table went silent at that, team seven thinking about the possibilities and team ten realising just how lucky they were.

* * *

Shino's bugs did their work. Hinata had reported that the genjutsu around their target was weakening by every passing minute and they still had about forty five minutes left. The bug user's estimated time until Kurenai wouldn't be able to hold her illusion any longer was five minutes. By now he had already told Naruto to send out clones to surround their teacher. 

Once again they found themselves at the main street. It seemed that Kurenai realised their plan and was trying to get lost in the crowd. Not that it would help her with a female kikkai bug on her and another hundred male ones draining her chakra.

The five minutes passed and as expected Kurenai's panting form came into view not one hundred meters in front of them.

Naruto's clones rushed at her from all sides as soon as they laid eyes on her. Once again taken by surprise Kurenai was forced to retreat into one of the many restaurants that littered the street.

Team eight rushed in to follow her. Some of the clones were on their way to the back exit and to the windows in order to block any possible escape routes. A group of five clones was already in the restaurant and trying to engage Kurenai, but the jounin quickly dispatched of them via kunai and shuriken.

As Shino, Hinata and Naruto entered they started circling around the red eyed kunoichi, preparing an all out attack.

* * *

Teams seven and ten were staring at the unfolding scene. First a beautiful woman with fascinating red eyes came barging through the door, then she was followed by five identical blondes and after another second they poofed out of existence as they were hit with several sharp and pointy objects. 

_After_ that another trio entered also featuring the blonde boy, but this time he had a tall dark haired youth and a pale eyed girl at his side. They spread into a rough half circle, advancing menacingly at the winded woman who was pressed against a wall, her eyes searching for something.

Then the three pounced, the blonde boy and the dark haired girl leading and the sun glasses wearing boy staying behind with smoke coming out of his long sleeves. Upon closer inspection the 'smoke' revealed itself to be a swarm of insects that filled the gaps between the three attackers.

The blonde feinted a low kick, making the kunoichi dance to the side, where the girl's open palm was already waiting for her. However the long haired woman twisted her body with almost inhuman agility and slipped between the two attacks, only to have a small swarm of bugs fly her in the face. She covered it with her hands. The blonde made a handseal and a large group of bunshins appeared at his side. Together they jumped the woman, completely burying her beneath themselves. Only the kunoichi's face remained visible. To say the least she looked… uncomfortable.

"Yo, Kurenai!" Asuma greeted happily.

The woman just scowled.

This was most _definitely _not the way Kurenai had imagined the second part of the test to go. She thought that the real danger would be only Hinata with her bloodline. Alas, she was gravely mistaken. It appeared that her students had by far exceeded her expectations.

The kunoichi had to scowl. It was great having such talented students and all, but why did they have to humiliate her in front of Asuma? She was never going to hear the end of it from her jounin friends. Beaten in her own game….

She stood up as soon as the last kage bunshin poofed out of existence courtesy of Naruto. Hastily she dusted herself off (note to self, white stripes over a red dress plus dirty floor equals a very bad match).

The grinning visage of Naruto didn't help either. Hinata was also smiling, even though not nearly as wide or smug as her blonde team-mate. Only Shino remained passive. There was however the satisfied buzzing of his tenants coming from underneath his coat. No wonder, the little creeps had sucked up almost all of her chakra.

"You pass." Kurenai grunted. As an afterthought she added, "Congratulations." Then she proceeded to stalk over to Asuma's table, yank him up by his flak vest and drag him out of the restaurant. As soon as they were on the porch she threatened him not to tell anyone about what had just happened in a way that no man could possibly take lightly. It _was_ their most precious body part after all. She then went back and sat pointedly at a different table than teams seven and ten.

She then loudly demanded a menu, glaring at everyone who dared to look at her the wrong way. Soon she was joined by her obviously happy charges. They too received their menus and proceeded to order. The red eyed kunoichi noticed the slightly angry and at the same time slightly afraid look the waitress had tossed at Naruto. The boy ignored it completely, opting to order almost everything the restaurant had to offer instead. The waitress had trouble scribbling it down. When she left Naruto looked strangely satisfied. Even more so than before anyway.

"Alright. What do you say if we get our first mission as soon as we are finished eating?" Kurenai asked, returning to her composed self.

"I say we can do it." Naruto immediately piped up.

Shino just nodded as did Hinata.

"Good. That's what I've been thinking." The jounin instructor said and watched eagerly as their food was brought to the table. In Naruto's case it were his _first_ five plates with huge amount of food thrown at them. The poor waitress looked like she was having serious trouble holding them up.

Now Naruto looked positively delightened. Kurenai wasn't sure why, because of the food or the waitress' suffering. As soon as they were served they all began to dig in, the jounin because she had to replenish her chakra, the two male genins because they just ate a lot and the female genin because she didn't want to stand out. Surprisingly the first one to finish was Naruto. That was including his _second_ five plates.

The genjutsu specialist could see heated discussion taking place at the table where Asuma had resumed his place soon after he came back in.

* * *

"What the hell was this all about?" Kiba whispered to Chouji who in turn shrugged. Shikamaru had his eyes narrowed and was observing the eating orgy at the table in the opposite corner of the restaurant. 

"Aren't that those three that always kept to themselves in class?" Ino asked turning her questioning gaze at Sakura.

"Yeah. The one with the glasses is Shino, the blonde one is Naruto and the girl is Hinata. I can't remember their second names though." Sakura answered as honestly as she could. Really the three genins in question were never anything special, like Sasuke. They had average notes in everything, they usually were by themselves and frankly Sakura had never spoken to any of them. The only reason she remembered them was because of the loud Naruto and because his two teammates were always so silent that their constant silence stood out in it's own way.

Suddenly Sasuke addressed Asuma.

"Asuma-sensei… The clones that Naruto just created had real bodies, didn't they?" Very much like Shikamaru the number one rookie had his eyes narrowed and was glaring at the blonde's back.

"Yeah, it's called Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. It is a jounin level technique because of the amount of chakra it needs." The bearded jounin explained. The table was shocked speechless for about two seconds at the words 'jounin level technique'.

"But how did he learn it? We weren't taught anything like that at the academy!" Kiba exclaimed. The remaining occupants of the table eagerly nodded to confirm his statement. Asuma rubbed his beard.

"Actually he learned it only three days ago. I don't know the details, just that it had something to do with the Mizuki incident." He explained. The perplexed looks he received told him that his explanation was crappy. He heaved a sigh.

"You remember the assistant teacher at your academy, right?" He was answered with a series of nods or words of the affirmative.

"He was a traitor, that's all I know. Three days ago it came out and Naruto was the one to capture him. Which is basically why he is a genin despite failing the academy test."

"That still doesn't explain how he learned something like this." Sasuke stated bluntly.

"I told you I don't know the details. If you want to know it so badly, why don't you ask him yourself?"

"Too troublesome." Shikamaru leaned back and scrunched up his nose. "We don't need to know how he learned it, it is quite enough to know that he did."

Sasuke growled.

"We have an equal right to learn strong techniques." In a lower voice he added, "I need to get stronger, or I will never be able to achieve my goal."

"Yeah, yeah. Killing your big bro, cuz he's gone all psycho on you. You know, instead of being such an emo you should try to be nicer to people, then they just might be more willing to give you what you want." Kiba stated offhandedly. It wasn't a surprise that the Uchiha stood up in order to appear more imposing…as imposing as a twelve year old could get anyway.

"I'm not emo!" He growled. _That_ was a surprise.

"You're seriously in denial, you know that?" Kiba asked. Shikamaru and Chouji nodded in support. Kiba received an elbow in the ribs from Sakura who was sitting at his side and a fist in the face from Ino who sat opposite from him.

Sasuke huffed and sat back down, frowning.

Asuma sighed.

"Sasuke, the reason Naruto was even able to learn this jutsu is because he has an enormous chakra capacity. More than all six of you together. If I am not mistaken, then even the Hokage has less chakra than the boy."

Once again stunned silence filled the table.

"Are you serious?" Sakura asked.

"How is that even possible?" Ino's eyebrows were so wide up her forehead, they almost touched her hair.

"Yes I'm serious. And you could call it… a birth gift." There was a sound that sounded suspiciously like a snort from the table team eight sat at. Asuma ignored it and continued to explain how just having a lot of chakra didn't automatically make you a great shinobi and how control and focus were at least just as important.

* * *

Naruto snorted. 

"A gift my ass…" He muttered under his breath.

Seeing as they were finished he suggested to get to the Hokage tower and get their first mission. Kurenai agreed as did his other two team-mates. They paid the bill, Naruto making sure not to give a tip to the waitress and left.

The streets were positively crowded now. Most genin and chuunin were done with their missions and it was now the time of the day most of them would go shopping for food or anything else they might need. Add to that the playing kids whose school had ended and the picture was complete.

Soon team eight reached the Hokage tower and began to ascend the stairs.

"There might be no fitting missions left at this time of the day, so don't be too upset about it." Kurenai advised her students as they reached the top and started down a corridor that led to the briefing room.

Naruto suddenly felt a little bit nostalgic. It had been two years since he was here for business the last time.

Unlike the streets below, the tower was now almost empty. There were the occasional secretaries passing by or a couple of higher ranked shinobi that walked leisurely in the direction of the exit but other than that the corridors were empty.

Soon they reached their destination. The door was closed and there were no waiting ninjas outside like it was common in the morning.

Kurenai slid the door open and walked inside, her charges following her quietly. The room was empty save for Iruka, who was also about to leave and was merely packing the mission reports.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei!" Naruto greeted enthusiastically. The scarred chuunin lifted his head and allowed himself a smile.

"Hello Naruto, Hinata, Shino. Good afternoon Yuuhi-san." He put the papers he was gathering back on the table and put his hands on his hips. "So, how can I help you?"

"We are here for our first mission, Umino-san." Kurenai answered, walking closer.

"Ah, yes. Actually we're out of missions already, but this doesn't matter. The Hokage said that he wanted to see you all. He said there was no rush but he would appreciate if you showed up today." Iruka said, returning to the stack of papers he had discarded earlier and gathering it under his arm.

Kurenai seemed to be a little surprised.

"Did he per chance tell you what this visit is supposed to be about?" She inquired.

"No, no such luck, sorry." Iruka said. He the proceeded to usher them out of the briefing room and lock up the door.

They bid their goodbyes and went separate ways, team eight heading for the Hokage's office and Iruka in the direction of the stairway down.

* * *

Yamato stood in front of the Hokage. The old man was smoking his pipe as usual and was currently writing the four transfer orders. 

The ANBU captain however still had something to say.

"Hokage-sama. With all due respect, do you really think this is a wise decision?"

"Yes, the three are quite capable and Kurenai is a very skilled kunoichi. I am sure they will make a great asset to your forces _and_ this way we will be able to keep them safe from Akatsuki for the time being." Sarutobi finished the last letter and proceeded to sign them.

"That is not what I meant. I would gladly welcome back Naruto as well as accept Yuuhi-san and the Aburame boy but I have my concerns about the Hyuuga."

"What is the problem?" The Third stopped signing and began to put stamps with the Konoha seal on the papers.

"As you know, we have been rather reluctant to employ shinobi with potent bloodlines since the Uchiha massacre. Hyuuga Hinata is heir to the most prestigious bloodline Konoha has to offer at the moment." Yamato finished with a slight undertone.

Sandaime sighed and tore his gaze from the papers on his desk to look the captain in the eye.

"I see what you mean. However I have a different opinion. Itachi was a prodigy of his clan. And as such his clansmen demanded far too much from him. He cracked under the stress and, influenced by the negative side effects of the Sharingan has fallen into insanity. That is all there is to it. Hinata on the other hand is considered rather weak for someone originating from the main house. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if as soon as she is transferred to ANBU Haiashi would come barging into my office, demanding her transfer back to the regular genin ranks." Sarutobi put his pipe away and rested his chin on his intertwined fingers, never breaking the eye contact with the black ops captain.

"I see your reasoning, Hokage-sama." Yamato bowed his head. "We shall accept her in our ranks, but we will keep a close eye on her. If she shows signs like the Uchiha did, such as distancing herself from her family and friends we will inform you and take her off duty until further notice."

Sarutobi smiled and put the finishing touches on the transfer papers. Just as he was about to dismiss the ANBU captain, there was a knock on the door. The head of the chuunin secretary emerged from the opening and informed him that the genin team eight was asking for an audience.

Sarutobi turned to Yamato.

"It seems that it's about time for you to meet your squad." He said and nodded to the chuunin.

"Let them in."

* * *

She didn't know how much time had passed. The man told her it was going to take three days but it already felt like an eternity. Some time ago the man had left, leaving a scroll lying on the floor that was aparently supposed to temporarily replace him since it emmited chakra. 

Nibi had stopped whispering to her a while back. It seemed that the extraction process wasn't quite the thing it had imagined it to be. Served the blasted demon righ.

The cave was empty and silent. Her captors didn't return and the scroll seemed to have plenty of chakra infused into it to last for a long time, making the cloaked man's presence unnesessary.

If it weren't for the numbing feeling that spread from her stumps up to her chest and encircled her heart, the silence would be almost relaxing.

But suddenly it changed.

She felt another presence enter the cave. It was far larger than that of her captors and a lot more intimidating.

Despite feeling it she couldn't see the person it belonged to. She turned her head left and right earning her jolts of pain for every move. There was noone but the presence remained.

Then just as suddenly as it appeared it left. Some time passed in silence. Then an evil chuckling reached her mind. The feeling it gave off was familiar. Nibi…

But the demon's voice sounded already far away.

"Yes….I will visit your grave… These humans think that they can capture me…and they can…but after that _they_ will free me…and I will visit your grave…" The chuckling returned and she felt shivers run down her spine despite the numbness that seemed to engulf her whole body save for her heart.

The stress and drain slowly caught up with her and in a few minutes she lost conciousness. But the gruesome images of dead bodies rising from their graves haunted her mind until the very last minute.

AN

Yeah, I know that the process of extracting the demons from the vessels is wrong. Don't bother pointing it out to me because I don't care. In this world they found a way to do it without every member present and without having to stand there like statues for three days.

Hmm, it seems that Kurenai came out to be quite OOC in this chapter. Sorry for that. Someone like her is a bit difficult to write when youre trying to brighten the mood and make the story not too boring.

Next chapter: entering ANBU and the beginning of the first mission.(No I won't tell you what the mission is going to be about)


	8. Welcome to ANBU

**AN:** Hey, everyone. Even though my PC is running again for some time now, I still won't be able to update much faster, since a lot of things are keeping me busy and they don't show any signs of stopping anytime soon. I will answer to reviews here, since it might explain something to the people who might have otherwise asked the same question that has already been asked. Soooo...

To most of the reviewers, I have only one thing to say. Thank you. I really apreciate all the positive feedback I've been getting from you guys.

Captain-Ronney. Once again, thanks for the unusually long review and pointing out things that you like as well as complimenting on my writing skills. I am quite proud to say that the only proofreading the stotry gets is done by myself(and open office spellcheck).Sadly I can't update any faster, rest assured however that this story will be continued until the very end. Also, yes I have a chapter estimate for this fanfic. It will have about twenty more chapters, although the number may vary depending on how long I make them.

Adeya, thanks. It's just that because I don't see Naruto making something more serious that I put this little element in, since I also don't see him taking everything in and not retaliating in some way.

Dragonedge Genesis. Now, if I told you which parts I was including into the story and which I didn't, wouldn't it be spoiling? Although after reading this chapter you will find at least one of your questions answered... Also, no I do not plan to continue this story after the time skip. If I do, it will be another story, most likely a sequel. As for abandoning the story...No.

Kyu-kun. Umm...I admit that I _was_ thinking of making him stronger. But it didn't fit into the plot, not to mention that I don't like those super power Naruto fanfics. Why? Because people usually disguise a self insert that way. The make Naruto act comepletely OOC, give him some strange clothes like a cape or a a hooded trenchcoat or something, then make him change his name for some reason and proceed to change even his physique, excusing it as the influence of the Kyubi, who by the way gives Naruto unlimited power etc. etc. etc...Seriously. Naruto? In a _CAPE?_ At the age of _twelve?_ Not to mention that it is really hard to think up oponents that are powerful enough to give him a challenge. Err... I'm ranting, aren't I? Sorry, got side tracked there..hehe...

And last but not least...CRaZY TeDDy. Did I spell that right? Yeah I did. Now...There is really no reason to include you in here since you really didn't ask anything. Oh, no, I'm not making Naruto weak. He is a lot stronger than he was in canon, besides I plan to _gradually_ increase his stregth.

Yeah... That's pretty much all I have to say.

* * *

**Welcome to ANBU**

Hinata supposed that her day had been rather… successful. In one single day she had jumped from a genin hopeful to an ANBU member. Shino seemed to have similar thoughts as they both sat outside of the Hokage's office waiting for their third team-mate, sensei and new squad captain to come out. Once again she eyed the transfer order she held tightly in her hands. Shino had quickly folded the paper he had received and put it into one of the many pockets of his coat. She on the other hand still clutched it in her hands. She even went as far as to look at the paper with her Byakugan to make sure that it wasn't a mistake or a prank of her blonde team-mate. She didn't know how to feel about this.

On one hand this was one of the best opportunities for her to prove her worth to the clan. On the other hand… was she even ready for something like this? Her pale eyes shifted to the solid wooden door that was the entrance to the office.

She could understand that Hokage-sama wanted to talk to Kurenai-sensei and Yamato-taichou about this unusual situation, but what could he possibly want from Naruto that he didn't want Shino and herself to hear?

* * *

Naruto was confused beyond anything he could have ever imagined. Not only were his bright and sunny days as a genin (at least he always imagined them to be this way) never to come, but he also found out that a group of highly dangerous psychopaths was after his life, or rather after the Kyubi inside of him. One of them being none other than the infamous Uchiha Itachi. 

Of course Naruto knew the man. The Sharingan user had still been an ANBU captain when the blonde was in his first year in the black ops. They even sparred once. Naruto had gone all out on the man, yet the Uchiha effortlessly wiped the floor with him. True, the demon vessel had been pretty green back then, but even then he wasn't a slouch when it came to taijutsu. The Uchiha didn't use any fancy techniques on him. No genjutsu. No ninjutsu. Just good old taijutsu. And he used only the basic moves from his style as well.

If all the Akatsuki members were anything like him, Naruto knew he was way over his head if he tried to fight any of them with his current skills.

Yamato was as impassive as ever, his white ANBU mask covering any emotions that might have played on his face. Kurenai was gazing at him with worry in her red eyes. Her transfer order lay forgotten on the Hokage's desk. Sarutobi was standing in front of the window facing the village, his hands clasped together behind his back. An uncomfortable silence reigned in the room for a couple of minutes already.

"So…What now?" Naruto inquired after heaving a sigh.

"First, I would advise you to tell your friends about the situation. Including the Kyubi." The Third turned around to face the other three occupants of the room with a grim expression on his face.

Naruto's brow started twitching.

"I would've told them already if _you_ hadn't told me not to tell anyone." He said. "And how am I supposed to explain that to them now? Hey guys, I've got the Kyubi, who almost destroyed the village twelve years ago sealed inside me, sorry I haven't told you 'bout it in the _two years_ that we've been _best friends_?"

Sarutobi chuckled nervously, his grim expression evaporating.

"I suppose it's up to you to figure out." The old man said, coughed in his hand and turned around to stare out into the village again.

"Blame it all on Hokage-sama." Yamato suggested. Sandaime made an unidentifiable noise but didn't turn around or protest.

"Yes. It would be the best way. After all he did order you to keep silent." Kurenai supported the idea. Sarutobi once again emitted a strange noise.

"Hey, yeah. You're right." Naruto instantly brightened. "So, when do we get our uniforms? And will I get one of those ANBU katana's this time around? They didn't give me one back then."

Yamato turned his masked face to his newly reappointed subordinate.

"Did you learn how to use one?" He inquired. His files didn't say anything about the blonde training in kenjusu.

"Nope, but it looks cool." Naruto sure as hell still remained Naruto in the end.

"…"

"What? It does!"

"Fine, if you really want to…"

"Awesome!"

* * *

Shino perked up as the door to the office opened. He studied the faces of his team. It unnerved him that their captain had his mask on. He refused to believe that it was jealousy, because the mask hid the man's emotions better than his sunglasses and high collar. The bug user stood up and leisurely crossed the corridor to reunite with the squad, Hinata silently following. 

The silent boy pushed his glasses higher up his nose.

"What do we do now?" He inquired. He noticed that both Kurenai-sensei and Yamato-taichou glanced at Naruto.

The blonde in question beckoned Hinata and Shino to him.

As they approached, he gestured to the other side of the corridor and together they made their way in the indicated direction.

Shino raised his eyebrows in question after taking a look at the adults, who remained behind talking to each other silently.

"Guys, I have something really important to tell you…" Naruto started afer heaving a sigh. "…About me."

"What is it Naruto-kun?" Hinata gently inquired seeing the slightly nervous look in her blonde team mate's eyes.

"How do I say something like this?.." He wondered aloud, making Shino's eyebrows reach even higher than they already were. The blonde rarely had trouble to express himself.

"Alright." Naruto seemed to find his resolve. "You all know how Kyubi attacked Konoha and the Fourth killed him, right?" Receiving two nods he continued.

"Actually Yondaime didn't kill him. Probably because something like the Kyubi can't be killed by any conventional ways. So he sealed it away into a newborn baby that was me." He rushed the last part a little but not so much as to make it into incomprehensible babbling.

Shino's eyebrows were now furrowed instead of raised. He always suspected that Naruto had a potential bloodline limit, but he would have never guessed that the boy was a Jinchuuriki. Unlike many other shinobi of Konoha, the Aburames were well acquainted with the term itself as well as the meaning behind it. Bug users in general were often mistaken for the demon vessels and it was only natural that they researched the topic that seemed to have such a connection to themselves. Shino looked at Naruto. Certainly, now that he knew the secret he could see the signs of a demon container. The unnaturally large chakra reserves, the unusual markings on the boy's face, the way most people in the village seemed to be afraid of him or hate him, the blonde's foxy habit of squinting his eyes almost shut when he was in thought or smiled…

Shino shrugged. This only meant that himself and Naruto were more alike than he first thought. His brows unknitted themselves and he turned to look at Hinata. The girl was blushing and stuttering something along the lines that it didn't matter to her and that she already though something like this. Shino raised his eyebrows once again.

"Really?" He asked, breaking her out of her stuttering. Her blush ceased a little and she turned to him. Naruto also stopped grinning embarrassedly (his grin caused by Hinata's heartfelt explanation) and gazed at him. Shino realized that he didn't voice his opinion on the subject.

"I thought you had a bloodline. You being a Jinchuuriki is admittedly a surprise, but it really doesn't matter." He said, pushing his glasses higher up his nose. Naruto grinned. Hinata smiled as well and proceeded to explain.

"Naruto-kun has two different chakra signatures. I was able to see them with my Byakugan. Even though I have never seen him use it, I saw it was there in every of our sparring matches." She admitted.

They settled into comfortable silence for a while.

"Hey, by the way, what's a Jinchuuriki?" Shino would have slapped his forehead if he were anyone else but himself. Only Naruto could be a demon vessel, know about it and have no idea about the word used to describe someone like him.

* * *

Former team eight, now ANBU squad seventeen, was inside the headquarters of Konoha's black ops. In the armoury to be precise. All of them received the standard attire along with random masks. Another thing that most people were mistaken about was that the masks were handmade and constant for each and every single ANBU member. 

In reality this would have been contra productive. The masks were used to hide the shinobi's identity and make them thus more unpredictable in a fight. If they wore the same masks all the time this effect would have been nullified.

Naruto was strapping his new sword to his back, grinning like an idiot. Hinata was in the female's dressing room. Shino was already finished and waited for his blonde squad mate to finish.

The absence of sleeves on the uniforms boldly exposed the tattoo on Naruto's left shoulder, marking him as an ANBU. Shino unconsciously rubbed his own shoulder. He felt strangely naked without his high collar and he had yet to readjust his mask to fit him properly so it was left lying on one of the benches. He pushed his hands into the pockets of his pants by habit, missing them once since they were placed lower than the ones on his coat.

He had to admit however, that Naruto had been right about the katanas. Not only did they look more intimidating with the swords on their backs, but the blade also gave Shino a feeling of security. The silent boy figured that these were the real reasons behind Naruto's wish to have one. The blonde wasn't half as dumb as he acted as Shino figured out soon after they became good friends. He did what he did to brighten the mood as well as sometimes confuse his opponents.

Naruto finished and walked up to the mirror. He faced himself and chuckled.

"I knew this would look cool." He announced.

Shino just shook his head in amusement. He took the mask from the bench and strapped it to his belt after seeing Naruto do the same.

They left the men's dressing room and waited until Hinata came out.

When she did she was blushing like a tomato and fidgeted a lot. Shino supposed that it was because the uniforms were tight fitting, not at all like their timid team mate's usual choice of clothing.

"You look great, Hinata!" Naruto announced and the girl had trouble to keep herself concious.

"Now the two of you are going to get your cool tattoos and we can be on our way out." Seeing the worried look in Hinata's pale eyes the blonde quickly added. "Don't worry. They are using a special jutsu for it and it doesn't hurt at all. It can even be erased after you leave ANBU, if you want to." Hinata relaxed slightly and she as well as her silent team-mate followed Naruto, who led them through the building.

They passed several rooms on their way and were surprised to see that Naruto often received friendly greetings as well as several "welcome back"'s from the people inside. The blonde even went as far as to introduce them to a middle aged woman, who turned out to be one of his former squad mates. They had seen her before but it was their first real introduction.

Soon they reached their destination and Naruto racked with his knuckles against the door frame, seeing as the door was open but no one was in sight.

They heard hurried footsteps and soon an old man with a pair of thick glasses on his nose emerged from behind a door in the back of the room that wasn't visible from the angle they were standing at.

"Ah, Naruto! Decided to rejoin us?" The man asked upon sighting the mass of unruly blonde hair.

"Nah, I was ordered to." Naruto laughed slightly. The old man chuckled as well.

"Well, welcome back anyway. So how can I help you?"

Naruto turned to his two team-mates.

"These are Hyuuga Hinata and Aburame Shino. Shino, Hinata, this old geezer is called Matsumoto Kenji. He's the one who does the awesome tattoos around here." The man seemed to either ignore the old geezer comment or he didn't mind. Instead of reprimanding Naruto he just grinned and extended his hand.

"Pleasure to meet'ya."

Shino firmly shook the man's hand and Hinata followed his example.

"So, you two are the new ones, eh? Allrighty then. Who's gonna go first?" Hinata still felt a little uneasy about it, but luckily Shino stepped forward. The man beckoned him to sit on a stool nearby.

"Before I can do the jutsu I've gotta see the transfer orders though." The man said, while cracking his knuckles experimentally. Shino reached into his pocket and pulled out the folded piece of paper, which he had put there from his coat in the changing room. Hinata quickly checked if she had hers with her and relaxed upon feeling the paper in her hand.

The old Kenji unfolded the paper, briskly scanned it with his eyes and gave it back to Shino. Task done he began his work. He went through several handseals and a bluish light encompassed his right hand.

"This is going to feel a little cold, just warning you." He said. He placed his palm on the boy's left shoulder. Shino visibly shivered upon the touch but other than that didn't show any signs of discomfort. A minute later the light ceased and Shino was allowed to vacate the stool.

After repeating the same procedure with Hinata the man bid them goodbye as well as good luck and vanished into the room he came from.

The Hyuuga heiress stared at her shoulder in wonder. This somehow felt very… final to her. And it didn't feel final in a bad way either.

* * *

An hour later squad seventeen found themselves together in the Hokage's office again. Hinata was surprised to see Kurenai-sensei in full ANBU attire, even though she didn't come with them, remaining to discuss something with the Sandaime and Yamato-taichou. Then again, the procedures didn't last very long and Hinata along with her team-mates spent some extra time in the armoury in search for fitting clothes. Even though children in the ANBU were not unheard of it was still rather uncommon, resulting in the clothes of their sizes being stored in the very back of the storage. 

The Hokage smiled faintly at them.

"I have a mission for you. It's a C-Ranked one, as you probably already know." The people present nodded.

"I decided to not go too hard on you, so this is a rather low ranked mission, but that can change at any moment as all of you very well know. Your objectives are simple. Keep a concert of the 'Blazing Shinobi' secure." Naruto cocked his head to the side. The 'Blazing Shinobi' was a pretty popular music band in Fire Country. However the usual security was provided by the Daymio's soldiers.

Meanwhile the Hokage continued.

"The reason they hired us is simple. Someone seems to sabotage their concerts, or so they say." Sarutobi pulled a paper from his desk and put on his reading glasses. "Ah, yes. Something like a natural accident happens at every of their concerts for over a month already. They suspect low ranked shinobi to be responsible, however they have no idea as to why they are being targeted. Your objective is to keep yourself hidden during the performance of the band and make sure _nothing_ goes wrong. You will be leaving tomorrow morning and meeting them fifty miles into our country from the northern border. I will give the exact coordinates to the squad captain. Everyone else is dismissed."

* * *

The three genin (since it was still their official rank, ANBU being merely their current occupation description) were now on their way to their respective homes. Naruto was the first to leave the group, soon followed by Shino. Hinata was left to walk the rest of the way alone after bidding her team-mates fare well. Her regular clothes were neatly folded and were placed in her arms. 

Soon she arrived at the Hyuuga compound. The branch house guards stared at her in wonder. Hinata blushed and made her way inside after confirming her identity. Once again a branch house member approached her. After a short sequence of gaping at her uniform the man seemed to regain his ability to speak and coughed to cover up his astonishment.

"Hinata-sama, your father wishes to speak with you." He said, bowed and departed, no doubt to spread the news about her entering ANBU.

The Hyuuga heiress sighed. It seemed that she was going to provide some nice food to the rumour mill. Still, if her father wanted to talk to her she probably should grant him that wish. Not that she had a choice in the matter. She started walking in the direction of her father's study, where he could usually be found at this time of day.

On her way she met unusually many of her relatives, who seemed to pop up from various places around the compound. Of course they made it look like they were absolutely accidentally there. Well, most of them… which could not be said about her cousin Neji.

Upon rounding yet another corner Hinata came to an abrupt halt, facing the long haired boy. Unlike the rest of her family he didn't even bother to pretend as if he was here by accident. He stalked up a little closer to her.

"What is the meaning of this?" He asked, his voice even colder than usual.

"What do you mean?" Hinata asked, refusing her instinct to fidget.

"Don't play dumb with me." Neji said from between his teeth. Hinata sighed.

"Because of my team mate's unique situation we were forced to begin ANBU duty." She stated. Giving out too much information was forbidden, but this little piece of it would serve well to calm down her sometimes rather irrational cousin.

Neji's expression became unreadable again.

"So, you were admitted to ANBU because of your team-mate." He clarified.

"That is correct, Neji-niisan." Hinata confirmed.

"I see." The boy turned on his heel and walked away.

Letting another sigh escape her lips Hinata moved on to her original destination. Soon enough she reached it, but not before some other members of her family showed up, once again by pure accident. Before opening the door Hinata contemplated to make a large poster and hang it up somewhere where all of her clan could see it. The poster would state : 'I, Hyuuga Hinata, was indeed admitted to ANBU. No, they did not choose me because of my ability. Yes, the reasons behind my reassignment are not to be discussed.' But then again, despite her having changed dramatically since her friendship with Naruto and Shino began, she still wasn't confident (or crazy) enough to pull something like that off. But alone the fact that such an idea popped into her mind spoke volumes about her personality.

The door slid easily open and with a polite bow Hinata entered.

"Good evening, Otou-sama." She greeted. As usual she was met with silence in response. It was rather common for her father to greet her with merely a nod of his head. However this time he was too busy staring.

Hinata stared back, trying to look as innocent as possible.

"Hinata…" Her father began. Then he stopped and continued to stare.

"Yes, Otou-sama?" She asked, after a long pause, in which it seemed Hiashi had swallowed his tongue.

"Why are you dressed in an ANBU uniform?" He finally said.

Hinata sighed. Unlike Neji, her father would want to know _all_ the details. To take the words from one of her classmates, this was going to be troublesome.

* * *

The next morning found squad seventeen at the entrance of the village. Naruto looked as if nothing was out of the ordinary, Shino seemed to be a little uneasy about his lack of collar and Hinata looked, strangely enough, on the verge of blowing up. Kurenai and Yamato were discussing something a little ways away from the three genin, most likely the best route they would take to the rendezvous point. Their masks were left hanging on their respective belts for now, even the one belonging to their squad leader. 

"So, Hinata, what's up? You look like you're about to kill someone and that's something _really_ out of character for you." Naruto said after stalking up to his female teammate and bowing a little, so as to look her in the eyes, since her head was slightly bowed. Shino didn't take long to join them, but remained quiet.

"It's… It's nothing, really. My family just seems to… overreact a little about me being in the ANBU."

"Really?" Naruto looked at Shino who seemed as normal as he could get. "How did your family react?" He inquired.

"They didn't." The bug user replied. Hinata stared at him.

"You mean they didn't say anything? They didn't take any opportunity they could get to stare at you? Didn't they even interrogate you about it?"

"No."

Naruto could only stare as Hinata pulled out some of her kunai and started throwing them at a nearby tree. It looked like practice, except her weapons embedded themselves into the tree almost up to the handle.

"Ooook… So… It's the first real mission for you two. Don't you feel excited? I know when I had my first mission I was jumpy as hell and was giving my squad mates a major headache..." Naruto trailed off in a vain attempt to lighten up the gloomy mood that Hinata seemed to cover their group with.

Receiving no reply from his team-mates and witnessing as one of the kunai Hinata was throwing went into the tree up to the ring at it's end, Naruto decided to join the adults and hear what they had to say.

"…about ten hours away. We should head straight there and take a short break before we meet them in the Kaitan village." Yamato was saying as Naruto closed in.

"Yes, this seems like the best way. If we head out in the next half an hour we should be in Kaitan at about six in the evening. We can rest there for the night and travel the remaining two hours in the morning." Kurenai surmised. She then noticed the approach of her blonde student and turned to face him. Yamato merely turned his head.

"Morning, taichou, sensei." The blonde greeted them. The two people in question nodded to show that they were listening. "So, what's the plan?"

"We are going to the rendezvous point in an almost straight line. On our way we will make a small detour to the village Kaitan, that is on our way. We will stay there for the night and head out at six in the next morning. We should be at our destination in two hours from then." Kurenai explained. Yamato nodded.

"Once we are there we will escort them to their next location, which also happens to be the Kaitan village. However since they are civilians the trip might take up the rest of the day. We will spend the next day scouting the area for anything suspicious and searching for locations the unknown… pranksters might attack from. The following day will be used to rest yourselves, provided we don't discover anything on the previous day. The band will use this time to set everything they need up, such as the stage and whatever else they have to. The concert begins in the evening, and from then on we have to keep our eyes open for _anything. _We still don't know what ranks and what numbers the opposing side has, so we have to proceed with utmost caution. We suppose that your shadow clones will be used extensively so I hope you are up to the task."

"Of course, taichou! You know me better than that." Naruto grinned. The two adults smiled at the enthusiastic shinobi and went back to talking, this time about something else entirely. Naruto soon lost interest in their conversation, seeing as it mainly focused on the band 'Blazing Shinobi', which Naruto himself didn't like that much. Turning around he observed the state Hinata's tree found itself in. It appeared as if the girl had calmed down after only a dozen throws and was now struggling to extract the kunai from the tree, which seemed to be reluctant to give them back. Shino was watching, obviously very amused by the sight if the small smirk on his face was any indication.

The blonde shinobi just shook his head and went to his female team mate's rescue.

After successfully forcing the kunai out of the tree and making sure Hinata wasn't about to go on a murdering rampage the three genin made their way towards the two older ninja. Kurenai proceeded to repeat the plan to the bug user and the Hyuuga heiress.

Only after leaving the village gates and travelling via tree branches for about quarter of an hour did the two rookie ninja show first signs of discomfort. Hinata found herself gazing over her shoulder in the direction Konoha was located and Shino simply furrowed his brows. They were in the middle of the procession, Naruto being in the rear and Yamato along with Kurenai leading the way.

The Kyubi vessel, seemingly sensing his team-mates' discomfort sped up to move between his two friends.

"Being home sick already?" He teased jokingly. Hinata blushed a little and turned her head as if to watch the rapidly passing trees. Shino unfurrowed his brows and raised them instead, turning to face Naruto.

"Relax. The real mission starts when we meet up with our contractors. For now just enjoy the scenery. It's the first time you two are heading so far away from the village, isn't it?" The blonde grinned as Hinata nodded and Shino just turned his head to stare in front of him.

* * *

The rest of the trip was rather silent, even though as they drew closer to their destination for the day the silent Aburame and the shy Hyuuga seemed to gradually loose their tenseness. 

Soon the thick forest began to recede, forcing the ANBU squad to move down from the tree branches and down to the ground. As they raced over a grassy field, small whips of smoke could be seen at the horizon. Hinata and Shino exchanged glances and made an attempt to speed up in order to tell their sensei and captain about it, since the two seemingly didn't notice. Once again Naruto seemed to read their minds.

"Those are just chimneys. If there was something major going on you would see the air above the village wavering from he heat of the fire." The blonde explained. "When I first saw a village from afar I had the same reaction. It's almost six o'clock, so many people would be preparing dinner by now. Seems as if we won't have any electricity in there though, or they would be probably using stoves like ours back in Konoha instead of the fire ovens."

Once again Hinata blushed and turned to regard her dark haired team mate, who seemed to be equally ashamed for overreacting.

Yamato turned his head and called for a halt. As soon as the squad gathered around him he explained the reason for the short break.

"From now on we will be wearing our masks. You are not allowed to remove them while in public unless I tell you otherwise. Furthermore make sure your hitayate is in plain sight. When we reach the village you may want to try and memorize your surroundings, it will make the work tomorrow that much easier."

He finished and proceeded to do good on his own order pulling on his mask. The rest of the squad followed his example and they were once again on their way to the village, which by now was clearly visible.

* * *

"Please remind me, why did we take this mission again?" A tall man with bandages over his face asked as he followed his smaller partner who could be easily mistaken for a girl but was in fact a boy. 

Said boy turned to face him and smiled.

"Because our contractors are paying good money for an easy task like this one."

"Uh-huh. And it wouldn't be just because you like messing with those punks who call themselves shinobi even though they aren't?" Zabuza inquired unconsciously rubbing his neck, where the hilt of his sword had used to be placed. Sadly they had to pretend to be civilians, so his sword was left behind in the hostel room they were using, safely wrapped in thick bandages, along with his slashed mist hitayate.

Haku had the decency to look ashamed as he turned his head slightly to the side.

Zabuza sighed. Even though he preferred fighting over something like this, he couldn't deny that this was still a very profitable mission. Not to mention it really _was_ fun to sabotage the concerts of those fools.

"Well. I guess there's nothing wrong with taking a small break from the harder missions once in a while." The former mist-nin drawled and began walking again, more feeling than seeing as Haku perked up at this and began walking behind the taller man. They reached the restaurant they were originally headed to pretty soon and after placing their orders and taking a seat at one of the tables that were placed outside they patiently waited for their food to arrive.

Suddenly Haku's eyes widened slightly, but returned to normal almost just as fast. Zabuza, who was sitting so that he was facing the restaurant building raised one of his non-existent eyebrows.

Using only his eyes the ice prodigy pointedly gazed somewhere behind the masked man. One of the seven swordsmen didn't make even a move to turn his head, opting to gaze at the reflection of the street in one of the building's windows. Soon he spotted the reason behind Haku's distress. Walking on the road in the direction of a small building that was also marked as an inn, were five masked and uniformed people. Two of them were remarkably short, the third one was visibly taller but not by much and finally the two others who seemed to be leading were about the same height, towering a good head over the three others.

As soon as they disappeared from sight Zabuza hissed.

"ANBU."

Haku gazed at him.

"You think they are here because…" He trailed off. Zabuza could only nod. This would be too much of a coincidence. Good thing he had their back to them too. Even though his face was not well known among the civilian population it was more than famous among the shinobi.

The girlish boy could only sigh in a resigned way.

"It seems as if our mission just got that much harder."

Once again his only answer was a silent nod from his master.

**AN**

Yeah, I know I suck in thinking up names. And yeah, I just didn't feel like making OCs for the first mission. Sooo...Review! Thanks.


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